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  1. ohtani's jacket

    IWRG 2/18

    By ohtani's jacket,

    IWRG 2/18
     
    Los Oficiales vs. Freelance, Angelico y Angel
     
    Freelance is back and appears to be out of shape. I assume he's been injured as he struggled to get into his usual groove here. Not that it made much difference. IWRG has wiped the slate clean this year with great booking and I don't see the point in continuing with a feud from their muddled past. It's high time they did something different with Freelance, whose career has stalled of late.
     
    Obviously, when a guy's been out injured you want to reintroduce him in trios matches, but I'm talking about the big picture here. Like most lucha companies, IWRG only really focus on their main events. They'll shift guys around in order to provide different main events, but if you're not involved in the top program then you're generally on the back burner in matches like this. IWRG may run another Freelance vs. Oficial hair/mask match or they may not, that's just the way lucha booking works. There's not a lot of midcard booking to speak of and a lot of matches just get thrown together. In this case, the last major thing Freelance was involved in was a hair loss to Fierro, and there were enough brawling elements to suggest a rematch of sorts, but IWRG will keep it humming along until they decide whether they want to run with a wager match or another Oficiales title defence, either of which will headline their Thursday or Sunday show, and then it's back to the back burner.
     
    What his means is that Freelance ends up chasing his tail, while the Oficiales ply their schtick against a random assortment of technicos. It's easy to forget that the Oficiales are double title holders because they're stuck in this revolving door of weak technico opposition and not enough trios outfits to feud with. In the past, trios acts seledom grew stale because they had a lot of other great trios groups to feud with. You could move their matches up and down the card, spreading things out if the feud was stronger enough. The Oficiales spend most of their time working with guys like Angel and The Rated R Superstar, instead of Los Piratas, which I think would be a great feud if IWRG could bring those guys in on a more consistent basis. I don't know the ins and outs of lucha indy bookings and why guys come and go from IWRG, but I do know that the Oficiales have run aground since their breakout year in 2008. In part, it's because their schtick isn't as strong as groups from the heyday of Mexican trios wrestling (of which we really only saw the last hurrah), but they're still good workers. Terry's camera caught some of the detail work these guys do like bleeding underneath their masks and the cool bump one of them did into a fan, but the match structure was basically the same as any other Oficiales match, and to bring it back to Freelance vs. The Officiales, it's a feud that's been going on since late 2007 (if not longer) and was decidedly fresher at that time. IWRG has been on the whole very good this year, thanks to The Man With a Movie Camera, Black Terry Jr., but there's still an element of their TV being poorly put together in terms of match making.
     
    Black Terry, Dr. Cerebro y Trauma I vs. Pantera, Hijo del Pantera y Zatura
     
    This continued the theme of the Cerebros being cattle rustlers and Pantera being a retired gunslinger who just wants to settle down on his own bit of land and teach his son to shoot and be a man, but whose past keeps catching up with him... This match was so fucking great. Black Terry was like an evil Henry Fonda in this. I kept asking myself what the Panteras had done to deserve such abuse and the answer is nothing. They were minding their own business and Terry decided to fuck with them for the hell of it. Over at luchablog, I've been talking shit about people's nominations for Best Rudo of 2009 and being an ass, but honestly, I don't see how CMLL rudos are rudos at all. They're bases for the technico flyers and work to the beat of the drumming and air horns. The louder the air horns, the more popular the rudo appears to be. That may be lively for some people, but this match was just supreme.
     
    The Cerebros' agenda was pretty simple here -- beat the shit out of Pantera and his kid until they beg for mercy. Pantera's selling was superb again, and Black Terry lorded over the match. The shift Terry has pulled in the past few weeks from the type of guy you'd pen a Country and Western song about to the ruthless bastard who's fucking with Pantera's homestead has been sensational and equally great on both accounts. The amount of dedication Black Terry shows towards ruling it in a small promotion in the tiny Arena Naucalpan has me wondering if he's not a top 10 luchador all-time. He may not be an iconic figure on a national basis, but the man just doesn't quit.
     
    Hijo del Pantera managed to escape the rustlers in Super Astro style, which was the trigger spot for Pantera to start kicking ass. Pantera is a biggish sort of guy by lucha standards and can rumble if that's what Terry wants, but the awesome thing about this match was that he went for the win and they had a third caida where they built to a triple tope spot and cool shit like that. Both Terry and Pantera were barking orders on the outside, squabbling with the refs and turning this into a must-win caida. Such a great feud. Unfortunately, we're not going to get a Terry vs. Pantera singles match out of it as Terry just lost his hair and has been giving more of the spotlight to Cerebro of late, but Cerebro was huge in this, so I can more than live with the shift to Pantera v. Cerebro. Cerebro has turned into a hell of a brawler in recent weeks. I'm not sure if like Navarro it's an area of his game that's always been underrated, but he really is looking like the most confident guy in wrestling right now. I really liked the finish in this match too. I thought the Pantera counter into a pin was such a great "fuck you" moment and I loved Terry kicking the rope at the end after he lost the playoff with Pantera. Also great was the beating he gave Zatura after the bell and his nod to the Terry fans at ringside. Definitely my favourite feud of 2010 so far.
  2. ohtani's jacket
    IWRG 2/11/10
     
    Trauma I y Trauma II vs. Samot y Maldito Jr.
     
    Can't say I was too enthused by this this. Trauma II had difficulty working his mat routine against a larger opponent; he should really know by now that you don't have to work the mat in every match, especially if your opponent has no skill in that area. There was enough stiffness in this to keep the punters happy, but it seemed lke a repeat of the Traumas match against Zatura and Suicida, only this time against a poor man's version of Villanos IV and V. I was impressed with the Traumas' double team moves, however, and the heat they're getting is cementing them as made men, so that's cool.
     
    Black Terry, Dr. Cerebro y H. del Signo vs. Pantera, H. del Pantera y Zatura
     
    Black Terry looks badass with his shaved head. He was in an irritable mood here, which I'm guessing is because the Gringos added injury to insult in last week's hair match. He had a great, niggly fall with Pantera, and I really liked how it was the Cerebros who initiated the brawling in the second caida even though they'd won the opening fall. Usually, the rudos start brawling in order to reclaim a match, but Terry was in full on cock-mode here, which is a little different from the rudo contra rudo version we've been seeing lately. The brawling was fantastic, too, with the Cerebros sauntering around the ring and delivering cheap shots like the Infernales in their prime. I've never thought much of Pantera, but this was by far his best veteran performance since dropping the mask, and his selling in the second caida was superb. His selling reminded me of every great beatdown in movie history. It's a shame that the Cerebros didn't leave his kid half dead so Pantera could turn Archie “The Stomper” Gouldie on them in the coming weeks, but Pantera doing the Super Astro tightrope escape was something you don't see everyday. The third fall lacked a big showdown between Terry and Pantera, and the double pin was a downer no matter which way you look at it, but I'm expecting more fireworks in the coming weeks. I just hope IWRG don't burn through all these feuds in the first half of the year. It's only February, fellas. The other great thing about this match was Dr. Cerebro. He was just oozing with confidence here and worked a hell of a mat exchange with Zatura. Nobody has Pantera's back like Cerebro has Terry's, so I'm looking forward the revancha this week. To me, matches like this are what make IWRG so great -- they're imperfect little classics in a post-90s wrestling world where three stars is the new four stars and veterans are the only guys who know what the fuck they're doing.
     
    Sangre Chicana, Black Terry y Negro Navarro vs. Solar I, Rocky Santana y Olimpico, AULL, 2/13/10
     
    I don't particularly like it when Solar vs. Navarro dominates a match, but this didn't have much else going for it, so I enjoyed their extended exchange in the opening caida. To be fair, it was a pretty great exchange. It started off in typical fashion with Solar getting the early takedowns and Navarro being dismissive of them, but built in intensity to the point where both guys were trying ridiculously complicated submission attempts. Nice arc and a sweet crescendo. Still, I really hate watching Black Terry in these UWE matches. He always plays second or third fiddle to the other vets and is nothing like the Terry we see in IWRG character-wise or even wrestling-wise. The Chicana punch was good and Solar sold it well, but as a huge Sangre Chicana fan I have to say I don't think his performance was anywhere near as good as Pirata Morgan or Pantera in recent weeks, and ultimately the technico side was too weak for this to be anything special.
     
    Black Terry y Shu el Guerrero vs. Negro Navarro y El Signo, 2/14/10
     
    When I was a young boy
    Tenements, slums and corner bums
    Playing tag with winos
    The only way to have some fun
    One thing 'bout the ghetto
    You don't have to hurry
    It'll be there tommorow
    So brother don't you worry
     
    Ghetto Life
    Talking 'bout ghetto life
    Talking 'bout Ghettoo Liiiiiiiiife
     
    This was a hell of a match in a hell of a venue. So many times you check cubfans' match finder and there's all these great looking matches that never see the light of day; now Terry Jr. is taking his camera cross country on weekends and we're discovering lucha is wrestled everywhere in Mexico -- tenements, slums, ghettos, under the fucking ground... this shit is real.
     
    This was a great little match. I might cop flak for this, but I thought the match showed how much Solar/Navarro fucks things up. No Solar meant a very prominent Black Terry and also saw Signo give the best performance he's delivered in five years. I've got nothing against Solar, but the other guys tend to tune out when he and Navarro take centre stage, and this was such a nice mix of matwork and brawling that I was happy to see these guys roll with each other after all those disconnected Space Cadets/Misioneros matches last year.
     
    Once upon a time, Signo was a hell of a worker. In the dying days of UWA, he was a dynamo, captain of the Misioneros and a better worker than Navarro if you can imagine that. Recently, I watched him brawling with Villano III in one of those random UWA trios that were WAR-like in their allegiances and they tore shit down like the El Toreo demolition. This was a throwback performance to those days if ever I saw one. And Shu showed up! I dunno where he magically appeared from, but fuck me if there isn't a greater missing in action luchador than Shu el Guerrero. Good to see that he's still making himself into a ball so that Navarro has to think twice about which limb to attack.
     
    The cool thing about this match was how they kept needling each other. There's been a bit of discussion at the new IWRG board -- http://z7.invisionfree.com/IWRG_Lucha_Libr...dex.php?act=idx -- about whether Terry has taken the mantle back from Negro Navarro as the best worker in Mexico, but the real Navarro came roaring back this weekend, making it a week-to-week contest at this point. The two of them actually brawled a bit in this match, and fuck when is that rematch going to happen? Anyway, there was no Angelico here, so no need for Navarro to be a pussy. I can't believe I just wrote that about Negro Navarro, but I'm telling you this was the real Navarro. The guy who sells without acting like anything really hurts him and doesn't give two fucks. Cool match that the Misioneros won by being bigger ***** than Terry and Shu.
  3. ohtani's jacket

    IWRG + CMLL

    By ohtani's jacket,

    IWRG
     
    Las Nuevas Figuras FIL vs. Los Gladiadores IWRG, 2/4/10
     
    IWRG has been on a roll of late, thanks to an influx of new talent and some much improved booking from the men in charge. This was a
    cibernetico match between the IWRG regulars and the young guys they've been using to fill out the undercard; not a great match, but it serves to illustrate why IWRG has been on an upward swing since the beginning of the year. The first run through was stronger than the elimination half for the simple reason that IWRG guys eliminating rookies is like watching The Dream Team play Angola, but there was some tremendous confidence shown by the IWRG regulars in leading the young guys through their best exchanges to date, especially since a cibernetico match is about outdoing the pair before you. The fact that IWRG could go five/six exchanges deep in such a match shows you how far the group of workers below Terry and Navarro have come in the past twelve months. With the Traumas, it's a case of young workers making huge strides, but with a guy like Dr. Cerebro it's about tapping into the potential that's always been there and making him seem like a major figure alongside Terry. The young guys are important too, because they provide fresh match-ups and allow the bookers some leeway with matchmaking. With a bigger roster and a place for everyone, there's less need for revancha after revancha and arbitrary apuestas matches. So while this was a minor match, I thought it was hugely positive and showed just how much depth and variety there is IWRG these days.
     
    Hijo del Pirata, Trauma I y Trauma II vs. Chico Che, Angel y El Hijo del Pantera, 2/7/10
     
    Black Terry Jr. had a hard time filming this as there was just too much going on to capture it all, but from what I could make out it was a pretty decent sprint. Speaking of confidence, Trauma II looked just as good working with Angel here as Black Terry did working with Hijo del Sigo in the cibernetico above, which is high praise considering Terry looked better against Signo than he has all year in regular lucha exchanges. But the guy who impressed me here was Che. I haven't seen him for quite a few months and he seems to have developed into a competent fatboy worker. That's great news because lucha, like rugby, is a game for all shapes and sizes, so if you have competent fatboy workers on your roster then you've got Puebla levels of flavour. I absolutely loved his headbutt in this.
     
    Black Terry y Doctor Cerebro vs. Hijo del Diablo y Gringo Loco, Hair/Cage match, 2/7/10
     
    Normally, I wouldn't watch a lucha cage match, but this feud has been so well booked by IWRG standards that I had to see what happens next. Where did they get that cage from? There has to be some story about how they got scrap metal and some half price chain link fence and welded it all together. It was pretty much the perfect looking cage for this scummy gimmick the Gringo Locos are doing. I thought Terry Jr. did a tremendous job of shooting the early parts of this match before the big Cerebro bladejob, because usually IWRG rely on a large number of edits to prevent their brawls from seeming static. Terry obviously has an eye for the business since he pretty much choose the best shots possible to stop this from being too monotonous, although he was sometimes on the wrong side of the action when it came to Hijo del Diablo's kicks. The match was a decent brawl much like their Super Libre match w/ the blood and quality of brawling making it superior to most lucha gimmick matches. Terry was spectacular as usual and the stretch run into the finish was awesome. All in all, it was pretty good stuff. There's got to be some sort of irony in the lucha indy version of Gringo Locos having better matches than the original Gringo Locos. The fan altercation ruled too.
     
    CMLL
     
    Centella de Oro y Lestat vs. Fuerza Chicana y Policeman, 1/25/10
     
    Holy shit is all I can about this. Centella de Oro and Fuerza Chicana did the best opening matwork I've seen all year and Lestat and Policeman weren't far behind. The locals are only getting a single fall these days but if it wasn't for Lestat and Policeman's poor dive and catch this would've been the perfect lightning match. As it was, it was pretty much three falls in one with all the shifts you'd expect from a trios match. Centella de Oro was amazing in his second go around with Chicana and absolutely destroyed everyone in Mexico with his performance here.
     
    Blue Panther, Metro y Valiente vs. Averno, Mephisto y Virus, 2/2/10
     
    I'm feeling more upbeat about lucha than I have at any point since I started this blog, so I'll drop a bit of praise on this. I thought Blue Panther was phenomenal in this match and his mat segment with Averno bordered on genius. Forget about his 2008, this was the best Panther has looked since that 2004 handheld Terry Jr. put up on his old account. His rope exchanges with Virus were awesome too and in a perfect world CMLL would devote 20 minutes to a Blue Panther/Virus singles match. Other than that, the match was average. Virus and Valiente fell well short of what they're capable of and Valiente himself didn't shine until his killer dive at the end of the match. The third fall had the potential to be really exciting with guys lining each other up and charging at one another, but they had to go and do all the bullshit CMLL staples which somehow CMLL think people not only want to see week in, week out but four or five times on the same card. I mean, they laid a pretty decent platform here in the third caida with one-on-one match situations and different guys hitting the ring to take over, but after they'd run through all six guys they went with rudo triple teaming and a whole bunch of other contrived shit. Fucking Averno was in his element, though. So much of the shit he's involved in ought to be abolished. The finish was weak as hell too. Still, this was more good than bad. Panther was great.
  4. ohtani's jacket

    1998 Sampler #1

    By ohtani's jacket,

    In 1997, CMLL had one of the greatest single year runs of any promotion in wrestling history, but what about 1998?
     
    It's not a year you hear a lot about. I don't think too many people could tell you what the match of the year was or which workers were on their game that year. Most of the CMLL I've seen from '99 has the company heading down the path of no return, so I thought I'd sample some matches from '98 and see what sort of state the company was in.
     
    El Hijo Del Santo, Blue Panther y Black Warrior vs. Negro Casas, Atlantis y Mr. Niebla (CMLL 4/24/98)
     
    This started off with some poor exchanges between Black Warrior and Mr. Niebla that were pretty indicative of where this company was heading over the next ten years. CMLL was a lot like other styles of wrestling in the 90s in that it paid off how solid the 70s and 80s had been without producing any workers who could carry on with the job; but watching older matches like these where CMLL is teetering on the point of being crap, you have to wonder why the veterans didn't take the young guys aside and say, "look that dive fake you tried was fucking awful, here's how you do it properly" because Atlantis and Blue Panther did a simple and effective "over the top rope exit" in the second caida which is what these young guys should've been learning from. Instead, you have these great exchanges between Panther and Atlantis and Santo and Casas that make Niebla and Black Warrior stick out like a pair of sore thumbs. Twelve years later, great mat exchanges are nothing to be scoffed at; but looking at the match from the perspective of when it occurred, CMLL were keen to push through guys like Black Warrior and Niebla regardless of match quality, and so as younger guys were pushed to the top, the veterans began succumbing to what is essentially a lazy style and nothing like the way they were brought up.
     
    The two young guys were interesting to watch, however. Black Warrior had a knack for making himself invisible in a trios match. You could tell that he was never going to be a star because he didn't want to take the bull by the horns and stand out in any way. I suppose it doesn't hurt to keep a low profile, but he may be the most low-key pinball bumper the world has ever seen. His tope was like a bullet, but he never made much of it and threw it away in the first caida here. Niebla, on the other hand, has always been an awful worker. I honestly think you can chart the downfall of the classic luchador to Angel Azteca's failure to stay on top in the very early 90s, because he was the last technico I can think of who had the offence to carry on with lucha in the traditional sense. Niebla was just a blight; he had some tricked out submissions that saved him from being as mind-numbingly bad as Blue Demon Jr., but so much of what makes a good technico is between the ropes and he was so bad at the stop and pop stuff that he was a lost cause in the end.
     
    The guy who held this match together, for the first two falls anyway, was Atlantis. He had something of a resurgence in the late 90s that began around 1996 and culminated with his famous mask match against Villano III in the early part of 2000. He squared off against Blue Panther here, and while it wasn't quite as smooth as some of the other times they've wrestled it was by far the high point of the match. When I first got into lucha, people always said that the must-see Panther exchanges were against Santo and Solar, but I'm pretty convinced now that Atlantis is the best match-up that Panther has ever had. For some reason, Blue Panther brought out the absolute best in Atlantis as a wrestler. Atlantis tried exchanges with Blue Panther that he never really tried with any other worker, which is a curious thing really, because when you think of Atlantis you think of a guy who was a great facilitator. He was a guy who was good at the nuts and bolts of trios work, as can be seen here when he provides the second caida with the necessary rhythm for a quick reply from the technicos, but against Panther he looked like one of the giants of this era of lucha libre and every bit the WON Hall of Famer that he's struggled to become.
     
    The other opening exchange was between Santo and Casas, who were still feuding at this point. It was more reminiscent of their UWA work than the Japanese influences they'd dabbled in the year before. Pretty much a bunch of jockeying, but they did a good job of engaging without really engaging to set-up the obvious fight they were gonna have in the third caida.
     
    The first two falls were okay and did a decent job of setting up the third caida, but what a mess that turned out to be. The technicos levelled the match with the second caida and Negro Casas spat in Santo's face to let him know they'd levelled it. Santo did an awesome job of wiping his eyes and mask and proceeded to give Casas one of the best asskickings I've seen Santo produce, but instead of the match erupting into a Dandy/Casas style third caida, everything just stopped... I mean dead in its tracks... I don't think I've ever seen these workers just drop a match like this in the third caida. Panther spent an eternity untying Atlantis' mask. The Santo/Casas feud really peaked with those trios matches that built to the Santo/Casas singles match at the end of the summer the year before, and all of their matches thereafter were middling, but none of them qualified as a rut. This was just awful and the confused booking at the end of Panther ripping Atlantis' mask off made it seem like there was no focus whatsoever to where they were trying to head with Santo and Casas. It was as confusing as the late '97 booking where Santo had a falling out Scorpio Jr. but continued on as a rudo unabated.
     
    Not a match I'd recommend and strike one against 1998 CMLL.
  5. ohtani's jacket

    Lucha Round Up

    By ohtani's jacket,

    IWRG
     
    Avisman vs. Bushi, 11/26/09
     
    This was the lightweight title switch the Segunda Caida guys wrote about recently. Avisman definitely showed what he's capable of on the mat here. Bushi couldn't follow suit, but I guess he wouldn't really know how. The match peaked with Avisman's final action on the mat, which was a counter into a ankle lock of his own if I recall correctly. Great intensity from Avisman to match his angry little man demeanour. He was like a little Napoleon with his matwork here. The rest of the match bored me, however.
     
    CMLL
     
    Sangre Azteca/Dragon Rojo Jr./Misterioso II vs. Mascara Dorada/Metro/Stuka Jr, 1/6/10
     
    This was also a title switch. There was an effort to make it seem important, but these guys are only capable of working one style and so this was just a longer version of that style. The rudos are so generic. I fucking hate the synchronised moves they do. You can't distinguish one rudo from another if they all do the same moves. They all look like Scorpio, Jr. to one degree or another, and who would've thought he'd have a lasting influence on the rudo division? Anyway, this was well rehearsed and the same match they do night in, night out. I guess you could call it solid, but the patterns are so predictable that it came across like an over-produced pop single to me. Stuka Jr is worth watching since he has a solid all-round game and a couple of nice dives, but he does the same thing in every match.
     
    CMLL Arena Puebla
     
    Centella de Oro/Blue Center/King Jaguar vs. Ares/Alarido/Crazy Black, 1/11/10
     
    Haven't seen the locals in a while. When they're on song, the locals produce the truest form of lucha in Mexico. Centella de Oro has to be the most underrated guy in lucha circles. He carried Ares through some fucking great lucha exchanges in this match. Blue Center was awesome too. Like a veteran version of 1991 Atlantis.
     
    Stuka Jr./Metro/Fuego vs. Dr. X/Pólvora/Virus, 1/11/10
     
    This started off with the same mat exchanges that Stuka Jr. always does, but Virus is such a great worker that he was able to turn it into a pretty good slow build. Why they chose to work a slow build is beyond me since everyone else wanted to work up tempo. That's another thing I hate -- the token slow build. Whatever happened to working the opening pairs before upping the tempo on the second go through? Virus/Stuka aside, this pretty much sucked. There were a ton of botched spots and no rhythm to bail them out.
     
    IWRG
     
    Negro Navarro vs. Angelico, 1/21/10
     
    The best worker in Mexico meets the worst worker in Mexico. This was such a weird match to watch. After years of watching Navarro annihilate young guys one on one, he sold for Angelico as if he were a fellow maestro. If Angelico wasn't Navarro's student and just some guy he was matched against on the indy circuit, you have to wonder whether he'd give him anything at all. I was actually annoyed with Navarro here because he was selling for some of the worst looking shit you'll ever see and putting it over huge. Angelico couldn't apply his holds properly and Navarro was submitting to them in the hope of giving his student some rub. There's been a bit of talk about Navarro working "even" with Angelico, but this was beyond even. On one level, his performance was excellent as he showed he can sell as well as he works holds, but Angelico is just not ready for the sort of respect Navarro showed him here. He contributed nothing to the match and looked completely out of place. I don't know whether Navarro has his blinders on in regard to his prodigy's skill, but I sure as hell wish he was giving the rub to somebody else.
  6. ohtani's jacket

    More IWRG

    By ohtani's jacket,

    Los Terribles Cerebros vs. Los Oficiales, Campeonato de Trios IWRG, 12/25/09
     
    Another poor Cerebros match. They look about done to me. Lazy matwork, weak transitions, unimaginative spots and some terrible finishes of late. I wouldn't mind if they broke up actually, because IWRG really need to run a Black Terry singles feud.
     
    Los Traumas I y II vs. Suicida y Zatura, 1/14/09
     
    I'm not sure what to make of Trauma II's new look, but his work here was some of the better stuff I've seen out of IWRG in a while. He had a lengthy opening spell with Suicida, which was the best Mike Segura has looked in ages. I'm not a huge fan of IWRG matwork because I think they give up the holds too easily, but I liked how they worked this into a standing punch exchange then took it back to the mat only for the Traumas to beat the shit out of Mike Segura for the rest of the match. The face-off between Mike Segura and Trauma I didn't quite work, but there was some good brawling in this. The Traumas have developed into real asskickers. Dad must be proud.
     
    Pantera, Angelico y Solar vs. Hijo del Pirata, Negro Navarro y Bombero Infernal, 1/14/09
     
    This was lively. Had some glaring faults, but it was lively. I approve of the way they've been mixing things up lately. Bombero Infernal dropped Pantera on this head, but apart from that their work was a nice change of pace and I liked how the match came down to Solar vs. Hijo del Pirata and Navarro vs. Angelico instead of the usual Solar/Navarro finish. IWRG can be short on variety at times, but this felt like a real trios match. There was some loose work, a few botches and some atrocious shit from Angelico, but even he was in the right place at the right time and I dug how they moved from match-up to match-up. If you thought Angelico's Chikara-like stand-up work was bad, wait until you see his kicks. I dunno why he does them since he has a decent looking skinny-guy chop, but he's clearly a guy who watches a bunch of youtube because he even does World of Sport mat tricks, which he probably aped from Chikara instead of the really good World of Sport workers. The best thing I'll say about his kicks is that Navarro did an awesome job of blocking them at the end and his stomach punch ought to have killed Angelico dead, but the finish wasn't bad and again it was the match dynamics that made this worth watching. I dug Navarro teaming up with a couple of bruisers in Hijo del Pirata and Bomber Infernal. Hijo del Pirata is the new Capitán Muerte in terms of bringing the offence and Bombero Infernal is a lucha indy waster. Mostly, I'm digging having weekly Solar in IWRG. If he sticks around, he may be my worker of the year.
  7. ohtani's jacket
    Bushi vs. Dr. Cerebro, IWRG Intercontinental Lightweight Championship, 1/10/10
     
    Black Terry Jr's handhelds are fast becoming the only way to watch IWRG. Give me Terry's handhelds over their TV production any day.
     
    This was nothing like a lucha libre title match, but I've decided to stop caring about that this year. If someone works a decent title match, I'll praise them for it, but it's painfully obvious that these matches are the norm now. They kind of remind me of WWE matches, but I guess lucha is heading that way in general with WWE having a bigger influence in Mexico than ever before. Dr. Cerebro is reasonably proficient at this style of wrestling and his work of late kind of reminds me of Dr. Wagner, Jr during his workrate phase, though on a somewhat miniature scale. The key difference between Wagner and Cerebro is that Cerebro hasn't foresaken his mat game entirely and still busts out strange looking submission holds from time to time. You could probably argue that Cerebro is a better mat worker than Wagner ever was, but he's looking more and more like a spot worker every time I see him.
     
    Bushi is a Japanese guy I've never head of since I don't really follow Japanese wrestling anymore, but apparently he's leaving the territory anyway. For a squash match on his way out, I thought this was reasonably okay. Bushi seemed earnest and I guess he learned a thing or two on this excursion. His work was kind of early Yamada-ish in that when in doubt go for a leg lock, but he didn't have any problems working juniors spots with Cerebro and the topes were cool. Terry's camera work captures a lot of the selling that IWRG misses, and my overall impression of the match was that it was reasonably consistent. Cerebro dominated the bout, but there was enough scope for both guys to put the match over even if it was truncated. The piledriver at the end was a nice touch. Might as well show him the way out in a loser leaves town match.
     
    So, Cerebro is the lightweight champ. I wonder how long he'll hold the title for. There was trouble brewing between him and El Hijo del Diablo at the end of the match, but you'd have to think that will lead to the latest in the endless series of IWRG hair matches. You'd think IWRG would move this title onto guys like Freelance, Zatura, Trauma II and Angelico, but I guess Cerebro won't defend it for a while.
  8. ohtani's jacket
    Satanico vs. Shiro Koshinaka, hair vs. hair, EMLL 7/30/84
     
    One of the things I discovered while watching the New Japan set is that I hate Shiro Koshinaka. I don't know why this is, since he's never been a worker I've felt strongly about one way or the other. I think Dylan Waco may have referred to him as a blackhole and that's as good a description of him as any. It did pique my interest in this match, however. It's not a match I remember liking particularly much, but it's Satanico so there has to be something good about it...
     
    Satanico cuts a promo at ringside before the bell. Despite being a rudo, he's entering this match against Samurai Shiro as a Mexican wrestler and thus there's a groundswell of support for him. Has there ever been a more charismatic worker than Satanico? Watch how he lays on the charm. It's so thick that you sense something is about to happen; something that will cement Satanico as a technico in this match.
     
    Sure enough, Koshinaka jumps him straight away. This in itself is an interesting turn of events, since you don't often see Satanico laid out like that. It's a sign that Satanico is going to sell for most of the fall and more than likely lose, unless he reverses the momentum Koshinaka has generated. Watching it unfold, I wasn't about to give Koshinaka much credit. I figured so long as he brawled okay, Satanico's selling would take care of the rest. However, for a touring wrestler, I thought Koshinaka did a number of excellent things in this fall. For starters, he had the right sort of intensity. It really did seem like he was eager to get the jump on Satanico. He paced about during the match introductions and argued with referee Eddie Palau like a seasoned rudo. As soon as the formalities were over, he begun dishing out more punishment to Satanico, and the tone was set for a excellent fall. Above all, he displayed a surprisingly nuanced understanding of when to cut off Satanico's comebacks. Either he was well advised or studied things with his own eyes, because you don't often see a touring guy with this much understanding of how to work a lucha match.
     
    Koshinaka chose to work the arm in this fall, which I guess is a universal way for workers from other countries to work together, but he set it up by stomping on the arm during the early heat segment and wrenching on it good and proper once Satanico was back in the ring. This gave Satanico plenty to sell, but the great thing about Satanico is that like Fujiwara he was such a great defensive wrestler that he was always looking to free himself from the hold. Instead of being meekly led around the ring by Koshinaka's wristlock, he pushed against Koshinaka's chin to try to straighten the arm. Koshinaka responded by moving with Satanico to the point where Satanico gave him his back. There was a nice armdrag takedown into a cruxific armbar, which led to a great spot where Satanico begun violently kneeing Koshinaka in the back. Koshinaka gave up the hold and was kneed in the head as he got to his feet, but he cut off the comeback with a kick to the cut and a nice elbow to the back of the head. Koshinaka went back to the armbar, but Satanico kicked him in the face repeatedly to tell him he'd had enough of all that business, and that was the only regrettable thing about the fall: that they left the mat to work the kind of rope exchanges that Koshinaka isn't particularly good at. Koshinaka took the fall with a backslide, whereas I would've much preferred a submission.
     
    Nevertheless, the second fall was also excellent. Satanico took a time out between falls and was like a man possessed trying to fight his way back into this match, but Koshinaka had too much in the tank for Satanico to muscle his way onto offence. I was really impressed with the headbutt spots Koshinaka threw in during the early part of this fall. They were amusing comedy spots and well sold, but they also led to Koshinaka attacking the head via different means; first driving Satanico's skull into the turnbuckle and then coming off the top with a nice diving knee that left El Satanico convulsing. This was the part of the match where they try to open things up a bit and work towards the bigger moves. They weren't in any hurry, however, and the pacing here was exceptionally good. Koshinaka set Satanico up for the move he wanted (another knee from the top) by weakening his leg so he couldn't get up off the mat, but Satanico shifted the weight to his knee and managed to catch Koshinaka with a big slam to the mat. It was a simple back bump, but Koshinaka rolled out of the ring and sold it like the trigger spot that it was. Satanico was limping, but came motoring around to the other side of the ring to finally beat the shit out of Koshinaka, and to everyone's joy, Koshinaka bleed after a series of postings. Great selling from Koshinaka, and a total surprise given that his selling was one of the reasons I hated him so much on the New Japan set. Satanico took the fall with an awesome looking folding press and there was a great shot of him sitting back up on the mat, cognisant of having taken the fall but looking absolutely buggered. A very good fall. The theme surrounding Koshinaka's head was a nice touch.
     
    Heading into the third fall, Satanico wasn't about to give Koshinaka any sort of a break. As soon as he caught his breath, he began giving Koshinaka a lesson in what a true hair match is all about. Palau kept trying to raise Satanico's hand and declare the second fall over, but these hair matches are all about an eye for an eye and all the things the bible teaches us not to do. And if there was ever a worker who wasn't about to turn the other cheek, it was El Satanico Daniel Lopez. He was relentless in this fall; hell bent on turning Koshinaka into a bloody pulp as a souvenir of his time in Mexico. Koshinaka fought back with a series of blows to Satanico's head, which sent Satanico into a frenzy at the sight of his own blood. Things were downright ugly now, the way a hair match should be. This was all about blood and guts; not being able to think straight and relying on instinct. Both guys tried to finish it and wound up selling more and more. Imagine my horror then when an amazing match like this ended with a DQ.
     
    The finish was bullshit. The match ended with a foul from Koshinaka He tried to feign that it wasn't a foul, but it was as clear as day and Palau was completely within his rights to award the match to Satanico. Koshinaka protested vigorously, but he wasn't quite good enough to pull this off in a way that would make a satisfying post-match out of a cheap finish. The idea was that Koshinaka was trying to counter a bodyslam into a cradle and that Satanico had faked the foul, but the way Koshinaka fed his arm made it look like a clear and blatant foul. Satanico certainly appeared to be faking during the post-match antics, but whatever their intentions it was a bullshit finish to a fantastic match.
     
    Bullshit finish aside, this was probably a top ten match for the 80s and likely the best match Koshinaka has ever had. Unfortunately, he didn't take anything he learnt in Mexico back to Japan, but a lot of workers claim that they don't like Mexico or that they can't understand the style, which may be the reason that most workers from other territories point blank suck in Mexico. Koshinaka, for whatever reason, embraced the opportunity to work in Mexico, and at a time when hair matches were still bloody brawls and there were workers like Satanico in their primes, he had a great match in the most visceral of lucha libre styles. And for that reason, I can't quite hate him as much as I did before.
  9. ohtani's jacket
    El Hijo del Santo vs. Felino, CMLL 7/25/97
     
    This was a revancha for Santo's title loss to Felino on July 4th; a match that ended with one of the great screwjob finishes of all time. If you've never seen that bout, I highly recommend it. It's one of the best lucha matches of the 90s and the finish is pure Casas.
     
    This revancha didn't offer much in the way of revenge, and I should've known by the number of times they showed Casas at ringside that they were just furthering the angle, but a few things stood out:
     
    The first was how natural an actor Casas was. The camera kept looking for him in this bout. I have no idea whether Casas knew that the camera was on him, but he looked so legitimately concerned for his brother that it really did con me into thinking that this was a serious bout with serious consequences. I don't know how worthy professional wrestling is as a form of acting, but I will say that Casas had amazing range as a performer.
     
    Santo, on the other hand, didn't have quite as much range. This was a poor rudo performance from my perspective. The Santo heel turn is deservedly famous, as it was a surprisingly shrewd piece of booking that drew back the crowds to Arena Mexico, but I'd have to say that Santo's part was mostly carried by the charisma of his opponents and the reality of seeing him on the same side as a cretin like Bestia Salvaje. Santo did a few things to "act" rudo here. He jumped Felino before the bell, roughed up him slightly and paused between normal Santo moves to convey some sort of disconnect with the crowd, but he never really had the convictions of a rudo, and that's why it was so easy to turn him technico after the feud had run dry. Santo, in truth, never wanted to be a rudo, which is something he claimed in interviews but couldn't project in the ring. Perhaps that's expecting too much, but there was a revancha match for a guy who was screwed out of his title. Most rudos would be baying for blood; Felino's first and then his brother's. In fairness to Santo, he'd begun ripping Felino's mask when Casas ran into the ring to cause a DQ, but the earlier work was neither aggressive enough from Santo nor sold well enough by Felino. If Santo's dislike for Negro Casas was so consuming that it forced him to turn rudo, then it ought to have been incessant at this point. He might not have felt it in his gut earlier, but had he played this role better, I think he would have sunk further into "rudoism" with this match.
     
    On the flipside, Santo's dives were awesome in this. They were the same dives that Santo always does, but it never ceases to amaze me how outstanding they are each time. These days, workers are constantly diving. They might as well be diving through hoops in a three ring circus. Take one look at it and your first reaction is: "what the fuck are they doing?" It's astounding how much mileage Santo got out of his dives when you take one look at modern matches and never want to see the workers again. OK, that's not true. There's a few guys who do dives which are worth watching again, but none of them are mainevent workers like Santo was. So, how did he do it? It's not really a matter of execution; there's guys doing far more difficult dives these days and executing them perfectly. It helps that he held off on them until late in the match, instead of jumping the gun. It also helps that he was a proper wrestler and not some guy who had no business being in the ring; but I think the reason is that they were simple moves albeit incredibly well executed. No matter how many new ideas people try to come up, there hasn't been a dive yet that beats a well executed tope. I hate springboard moves with a passion. If I were in charge of training luchadores, I'd tell them that the lord gave them three ropes through which to dive and a top turnbuckle from which to jump off, and if any of them wish to dive over the top rope or springboard themselves, they better be able to wrestle. I'm sure Diablo Velasco would approve.
     
    Anyway, this was a decent watch in the context of the Santo/Casas brothers feud, but not a compelling watch on its own.
  10. ohtani's jacket

    Santo vs. Felino

    By ohtani's jacket,

    El Hijo del Santo vs. Felino, Mexican National Middleweight Championship, CMLL 4/5/96
     
    This was a good match. It wasn't a mat classic like the Blue Panther vs. Atlantis Copa Victoria final, but it had a lot in common with how I think lucha should be wrestled these days, i.e., if you're not going to wrestle close to the canvas, you should at least be clever about how you put a match together.
     
    This started off on the mat, but didn't really go anywhere because Felino wasn't able to work from underneath at this point. It was fairly typical matwork in that the guy working underneath reversed the hold into one of his own, but Felino wasn't able to do anything interesting with the limbs he was fed. Santo for his part looked good, and established that the mat wasn't a place where Felino was going to gain an advantage; it was just a little disappointing in the sense that Santo is a guy who I'd like to see wrestle a bit more. Oftentimes, he'll work the spots he's known for and little else. Here, he stayed away from the mat spots he's known for and worked a pretty solid ground game, but Felino couldn't counter effectively and that meant that Santo didn't have to wrestle as much as he could have. In the end, they left the mat altogether.
     
    Usually, I hate it when workers leave the mat to finish a fall, but it made sense here from Felino's perspective as challenger. The only real success he was having was with his throws and thus he was better off on his feet. What I liked about the finish was that they put a little thought into it. Felino bumped to the outside, and scattered when Santo faked a tope. Santo wound up baseball sliding through the ropes to chase Felino, but the feline Casas was quicker than his opponent and caught him with a spinning heel kick as he re-entered the ring. This set-up Felino's crucifix powerbomb, which may seem like an annoying way to finish a fall's worth of matwork, but it was pretty clear that Felino needed to create distance between himself and his opponent, and strike from there. Felino is your atypical modern luchador in the sense that he's really an armdrag type guy. He likes to bump and roll and use the ropes, and it's his gimmick after all that he's the fastest luchador. Modern luchadores need to play to these strengths as well, since it's the only thing they know how to do; the trouble is, it really is the only thing they know how to do, so you don't get the same sort of grounding that Felino had here before he decided to chance his arm by charging at Santo, who we know could've avoided the spin kick and countered it into a pin.
     
    Felino didn't have a clue what he was doing in the second fall and looked like he was making it up as he went along, but again he had success with his throws, which gave Santo something to sell after taking a big back bump from the crucifix bomb. I didn't really mind that Felino looked clueless, because I can buy that the challenger isn't sure what to do next, but it was one of those weak bridging falls where the guy who ate the pinfall in the first caida reverses the tables in no time whatsoever. It was a nice belly-to-belly suplex off the top rope, though. Good impact and the most decisive throw of the match, so it had those things going for it, I suppose. If you're going to throw bombs, at least make them emphatic.
     
    The bridging fall I'm talking about is an important part of lucha singles matches in that it quickly undoes the work that was done in winning the first caida; I just thought the transition was a little weak, though psychology bookworms will note that Santo avoided the spinning heel kick and thus it was part of the tapestry of the match. Deciding the length of the fall is somewhat tricky. These days, the length of each fall is determined by television time, which is unfortunate, because the ability to lengthen or shorten a fall is how you build momentum for the third caida. If the falls are of equal length, then there's a predictablity about the third caida. Some might argue that there's always a predictability about the third caida, but shortened falls put the heat on whoever lost the fall. Nowdays, every fall is short, which is part of the ongoing problem of nothing really mattering anymore.
     
    Santo hit his Tope de Cristo to kick start the third fall (I think I got that right, that flying somersault headbutt to the outside that Santo likes to do); a caida that was filled with the type of inconsistent selling that people hate about lucha. Some people might question why they sell so much after hitting a move or kicking out of a nearfall only to spring to their feet for the next attempt, but the stagger sell on a pinfall cover is better than no pacing at all. It's always an indicator that the end is near and at least that creates some tension for the fans. Besides, Felino was the type of worker who liked to miss moves from the top, like his moonsault to canvas which led to the finish here. So long as both guys are running out of lives, so to speak, you can build a reasonably dramatic fall even if you're not selling that well. Santo took this match with a camel clutch that Felino sort of tried to fight, and while it wasn't a great match, I really felt that rhythm was the key here.
     
    Lucha matches these days don't seem to have rhythm. If you watch a match until it's conclusion and think back on how they got there, there doesn't seem to be many twists and turns along the way. Guys aren't gelling and forcing each other to go in different directions. It's pretty much a catching contest with dives in the first fall, dives in the second fall, and dives in the third fall. You can plug any set of luchadores in there and they'll follow the same pattern. This wasn't one of the better Santo/Felino matches, but it had a hell of a lot more scope than the average match today. Felino came up short for a reason, and how many matches can you say that about these days? Lucha is as arbitrary right now as the amount of unmaskings and hair cuts in IWRG.
     
    Felino was the type of worker that all the young guys want to be, and while I wouldn't call him a particularly great worker, he had much better matches than we're seeing today despite the fact that he looked clueless half the time, and the reason for that is because he could follow the rhythm of a match and time his stuff accordingly. If more workers could do that, then more stuff would be passable. Instead, people have lowered their standards dramatically to be able to enjoy present day CMLL or whatever else they're watching, and funnily enough Felino is a part of that now. Instead of asking where the good Felino matches are these days, it's more a case of where's a match with a minute of good Felino work while he does that stupid La Peste Negra crap. This title match from '96 is the type of match they should be able to put out with ease these days, but they can't. It's dumbfounding to me that so many of the basic skills have been lost in such a short span of time, but I guess you reap what you sow.
  11. ohtani's jacket
    Freelance vs. Oficial Fierro, hair vs. hair, 11/29/09
     
    This was more like it.
     
    Fierro came into the match with his arm bandaged up and Freelance spent most of the match going after the injury and telling the ref to fuck off. Nothing outstanding, but at least he did the whole una sopa de su propio chocolate schtick without any qualms. If anyone's going to be a Black Terry type figure in ten, fifteen years time, then it has to be Freelance, since he's one of the few young workers with any sort of clue.
     
    The ref screwed him over in the second caida when he blamed Freelance for an inadvertent ref bump, and I really liked how Freelance responded by upping the ante on the asskicking he was dishing out. Fierro did a nice job bumping and selling and managed to fend Freelance off so that Oficial 911 could soften him up on the outside. 911 gave Freelance a decent working over, while Yack stood around gaping... useless Pumpkin thing. This led to an awesome bit of chaos where Freelance pulled 911's mask off and Fierro took a nasty bump on a missed tope. This was a shockingly good bit of camera work by IWRG standards, as you could clearly see Fierro try to stop himself in mid-air to no avail. It wasn't quite up there with those Akira Nogami guard rail bumps, but it got a pop out of me.
     
    911 returned to the scene and tried slapping some sense into Fierro before rolling him back into the ring. They danced a little more until Fierro caught Freelance off guard with a pinfall that really ought to have been a nearfall, cutting the match short somewhat. I dunno why they cut it off just as it was getting good, but I guess that's IWRG for you. On the whole, it was a pretty good match. The potential's definitely there to do this sort of match right if they give the tercera caida enough time. Whether they can still blade on TV is the real question.
  12. ohtani's jacket
    RAMBO VS. VILLANO III, 6/14/01
    RAMBO VS. VILLANO III, HAIR VS. HAIR, 6/21/01
     
    Eight years is a long time to wait for your revenge, but that's how long it took José Luis Mendieta Rodríguez to finally meet up with senor Señor Mendoza again.
     
    PART ONE -- THE MANO A MANO
     
    RAGING NOODLES:
     
    Watching this I was thinking about how certain essentials and basics have been lost in pro wrestling matches as the years go by. There is nothing excessive here like most modern pro wrestling matches, but that's not to say this was a minimalist work. For example, the matwork was very well paced and the reversals were pulled off effortlessly. I guess one can say that both these guys were a bit limited physically at this point, I mean, I can only imagine what sort of injuries Rambo's had over his journeyman career. But that doesn't matter at all in this match, since both these guys are real workers and are very familiar with each other. The match they had in 1993 holds up remarkably better than a lot of the pimped AAA stuff of the early 1990s. Being a big fan of the AAA Mask vs Hair match, led me to be both excited about the potential here but also worried since it's hard to guess how a match is going to turn out quality wise. But I was really satisfied with what Villano III and Rambo pulled off here.
     
    There were two parts in this match, the first part being the matwork and it boiling over at the middle point into a great brawl. The matwork section had some great grappling action, and counters like Rambo headbutting (plenty of headbutt's in this bout) Villano's chest to break Villano's bridge. Another great moment was when both guys got tied up in each others' double headlock, and rolled all the way out to the arena floor and then all the way back to the ring without letting go of the hold. They looked like two old dogs, fighting their hearts out and never letting their grip of each other go. This leads to some more natural matwork, until they stand toe to toe and Villano III just lets loose and delivers a big ole headbutt and it's on.
     
    It's very difficult to pace a match that goes back and forth with both guys building towards a draw. But Villano III and Rambo managed to pull it off here and it didn't feel contrived at all. This didn't have the big bumps that Rambo did in the past, but Rambo still had some nice moments like his missed bottom turnbuckle silla and the way he bumped and sold Villano's knee counter to his big running splash. When Rambo missed his silla, Villano immediately went after Rambo's head with some biting and the juices started flowing. As Rambo starts coming back and is about to get his revenge by posting Villano, the video cuts off for a brief amount of time. It's a huge shame, but watching lucha libre, one gets pretty much used to stuff like that happening. But as the video comes back, both crimson faced guys are on their knees in a brilliant exchange of vicious headbutts and manly slaps. It was so awesome that I have hard time articulating how great that was. As they start building towards the finish, Rambo hits this great big senton that looked so crushing as Rambo is pretty big at this point. A little after that, we get another great exchange, this time with each guys taking turns biting each other and it ending with a Villano III punching combo. As I mentioned earlier, this ends in a draw and the best part about that is that it gave us another great match to look forward to. The post-match stuff might be the best part of this match, as both guys can't stop going after each other and their emotions are so passionate at this point. They are both wounded and hurt, selling the previous 15 minutes of action, but they are still trying to fuck each other up with headbutts, kicks, and punches. This was pretty great.
     
    OHTANI'S JACKET:
     
    Rambo was billed as the rudo in this feud, but I'm not buying that.
     
    There was something of Satanico Daniel Lopez in Mendoza that made him a natural rudo. Sure, he'd had the big unmasking with women crying and his family around him, but a leopard never changes its spots. There was something vain about the way Mendoza courted babyface attention, despite being the same shit as ever. It reminds me of an amusing story my father used to tell about how he could never enjoy the Precious Pupp cartoon as a child, because all he wanted as for someone to ram their big toe up the dog's arse. Besides, Mendoza was the prick who took Rambo's mask in the first place, then turned around and took his hair... A man doesn't forget those things.
     
    The reason I like watching older luchadores is because they simplify everything. Rambo was never the greatest worker in the world, but he wasn't the type to hide behind his limitations. Hiding behind his limitations would've meant he couldn't hang with the better workers, and that just wasn't Rodríguez' style. He was gonna give himself his best shot at winning, especially against a bastard like Mendoza.
     
    So while this had some awkward moments, particularly in the stand-up parts, you have to appreciate how simple and direct it was: get the takedown, grind your opponent's face into the mat, and when that doesn't work, start with the short arm punches. Mendoza had a straight-up advantage on the mat. His father was inarguably the greatest mat worker in lucha history, and Mendoza probably spent his entire childhood trying to take his father down and failing. He knew his way around the mat like a child knows its way around the nursery, but I was impressed with how Rambo hung in there and even managed to turn him on a few occasions. The fact that Rambo was such a big guy made this even better.
     
    The other thing I liked about this was how slow it was. OK, you can argue that Rambo was out of shape and selling because he was short of breath, but lucha is a style that should be worked at half-speed with a large amount of exaggeration. This was roughly the same length as younger workers' matches, but with far less moves, more exaggerated selling and a greater emphasis on desperation takedowns. Mendoza, being a tweener at best and the prick who started this fight, was the first to start with the biting, and didn't he look like an old Dracula? That carney bastard has been in so many of these matches that there was a real gleam in his eyes when Rambo started bleeding.
     
    The finish was great too with the beautifully timed missed splash, Rambo selling Villano's tucked knees as if it were a foul, the accidental and convincing looking double pin, and the tooth and nail brawling afterwards. Neither guy really got a piece of each other, so we got more --
     
    PART TWO -- THE HAIR MATCH
     
    RAGING NOODLES:
     
    This was classy, well, as classy as a bloodbath between two middle aged grapplers could be. We get the big hair vs hair match really soon after the previous singles match and both of these veterans delivered. Unlike the match from the previous week, this was a 2 out of 3 falls encounter. At the very opening, Villano III gets on the microphone and asks Rambo for a gentleman's agreement to have a high class wrestling match without any blows. This leads the announcers to debate about this and if it's right to do for such a high stakes bout. So the first fall is a little over 5 minutes, and is some lovely matwork. I thought this was more impressive than the first match in the series, and had a rhythm that was easier to get into. It wasn't complex like El Satanico's best matwork, but it was simple matwork pulled off gracefully by two old masters. They each knew every little openings and countered at just the right time. They did some awesome struggling as well, like when Rambo was fighting for an armbar and Villano for a leglock. The first fall ends after Rambo starts to nail his butt butts, and locks in a submission hold for the win. Second fall is short, as Villano makes a quick comeback with a dropkick and a hurricarana roll at the :17 second mark.
     
    As the third fall beings, Rambo brings out the best staple of all the hair vs hair match, the biting and the announcer enthusiastically cries "This is what we've been waiting for gentlemen". One of the concerns about luchas de apuestas, is how well the workers are able to gel the violent nature of this type of match with their nearfall attempts. Nearfalls are probably the worst thing to have happen to pro wrestling over this decade, as a lot of workers can't help it and they start to have these superfluous long finishing stretches that have no flow. Villano and Rambo are too smart (and probably too physically limited) to even attempt a ridiculous amount of nearfalls. They keep it pretty simple in the third fall with Villano III doing an excellent job of selling a shoulder injury from the first fall and Rambo working him over. Villano III starts to make a great comeback, fighting on the top rope with Rambo. They are slowly working towards a super DDT spot, but the way it's set up with Villano III weakening him with biting and headbutts was a neat touch. Both guys are now working towards finishing each other, and in a great moment, Villano hits a clothesline and just clutches at his injured arm.
     
    After a crucifix pin, they start trading these great punches on the mat. A short while after this, Rambo botches something from the top, but Villano quickly covers that up and goes for a tirabuzón pinfall press. We get some great pinfall and submission attempts throughout the 3rd fall, including Rambo going back to his combination that finished off Villano previously but it failed him in this case. They start throwing some more bloody headbutts, and the doctor starts to check Rambo's cut. The doctor is teasing a stoppage as Rambo valiantly refuses, so as the match continues, it leads up to my favorite false finish of the match: a great sunset flip from the apron from Rambo. After a cool crossbody block by Rambo that gets reversed and some more headbutts, we get this classic visual of the referee dragging a bloody wreck of a Rambo to the doctor to check on his cut one more time. This might seem like a bullshit finish in some cases, but I loved it here. The way Rambo sold it and performed it here was great. The whole post-match stuff was classic stuff with lots of words being exchanged, more punches and headbutts being thrown, an outright refusal from Rambo concerning the hair shaving, and Villano III lecturing how he didn't want to remove his mask when Atlantis beat him but he was a man so he did it. This was all wrapped together in a tight package. These were two guys with a lot of pride on the line and a lot of hate in their history. They went out there, kept it simple, fought to a bloody pulp, carved themselves up and it was a manly example of how great lucha libre can be.
     
    OHTANI'S JACKET:
     
    A gentleman's agreement?
     
    Look at how Rambo stops to sign autographs for the kids. Mendoza blows them off and stares at his valet's ass.
     
    Mendoza's ploy to have Rambo mat wrestle blew up in his face when it became apparent that the General had close quarters combat training. This was the kind of fall you'd show people to determine whether they could ever get into lucha, because the holds were so loosely fed, the counters so slow and the finish so inexplicably lucha, that I could see a lot of people thinking it's ridiculous. For the aficionado, the rhythm was near perfect (as Raging Noodles pointed out), and I honestly didn't bat an eyelid when Rambo took the fall on a roll-up submission move. There's a thousand ways to win a fall in lucha libre, but what really matters is what comes next. Villano came out his corner with a drop kick that caught Rambo high in the chest, and we got a nice slow motion replay of the bump and roll, and Villano following up faster than Rambo could react. Seventeen seconds into round two and the one fall advantage was gone -- seems unfair, but the whole of lucha libre is predicated on what is fair and unfair.
     
    Rambo threw the gentleman's agreement out the window to start the third fall, as well he should considering how many times he'd lost to the guy. Villano's selling in the tercera was pretty great, as he ignored the cut that Rambo had opened and focused solely on the pain shooting through his arm. There was a great shot of Rambo working the joint while Mendoza bleed into his opposite arm, his face buried as the blood found a way to trickle and escape. Mendoza waved off the referee and Rambo released the hold, but not before punching his shoulder. When Mendoza surfaced, it was like a drowning man gasping for air. He staggered around with blood seeping into his left eye and shit smeared all over him from when he'd been in the hold. Rambo likely had visions of taking whatever hair Mendoza had left, but Mendoza is a cagey son of a bitch.
     
    This was a great fall for the reasons that Raging Noodles spelled out, but what really impressed me was how well they paced it in terms of Rambo catching up to Villano's groggy state. Villano didn't just pop up and start taking Rambo to the cleaners, it started with Rambo taking whiplash bumps that knocking the stuffing out of him and proceeded at the pace with which Rambo bled. I don't know how many times I've seen workers throw it all away from this position, but not here. There wasn't a single moment where it looked like they'd undo all the good they'd done, not even when Rambo overtook Villano in the fucked-up stakes. In fact, I'm struggling to recall a hair match with a tercera caida as well paced as this. The stoppages were exceptionally well done and they even had the confidence to throw in a comedy spot where the referee looked foolish on a double knockdown count. The finish was awesome: Rambo kept coming at Villano with punches, but it was all he could do to put one foot in front of the other. When Villano slipped free and Rambo kept walking towards the ropes and his cornerman, it was clear he was done. He didn't want the fight to be over, but like I said, lucha can be distinctly unfair.
     
    So there he was, hunched over and bleeding as much as any other worker in memory, and he had to suffer the indignity of Mendoza telling him to take it like man. And that's not the worst part -- Rambo lost the next hair match they had.
     
    Thwarted, again and again... That has to grate.
  13. ohtani's jacket
    BLACK TERRY VS. MULTIFACETICO, hair vs. mask, 4/17/08
     
    Black Terry in a singles match. This has gotta be good, right?
     
    RAGING NOODLES:
     
    The opening video promo for this match makes me want to get a hold of all the Black Terry footage that's available on video tape. Even of stuff that doesn't look too promising, I have this impression that it will at least have one bright moment somewhere. Black Terry's like Anthony Mann, as he is able to overcome a lot of tough limitations and still be able to do create something compelling that's fun to watch. Terry is very aware of the obstacles in front of him and he sets out to craft an entertaining gritty show around the weaknesses he observes. Since Multifacetico did not inherit his father's greatness, this is the Black Terry show and it's an easy show to appreciate.
     
    It seems like in this decade, babyfaces from all around the world have gotten worse at being able to work the crowd and getting the crowd to believe in them. Multifacetico is a bit limited offense wise, but that shouldn't be a problem in a match like this. But what is a problem is that his brawling is way too similar to that shitty sort of brawling that one finds on the American workrate indie scene and the way Bret Hart brawls on the DVDVR NJPW set. I did appreciate that there were moments were he at least attempted to sell the beating he was taking, although I won't say it was great selling at least the thought was here. As usual, this match has some great touches from Terry, like I loved his pre-bell attack back firing on him and the way he sold it was great. The 1st fall of offense is the usual stuff you see in these matches, and it takes someone with great basics to be able to make it work. Terry has some awesome basic stuff, like his punches (he hit some great hooks throughout the match), his overhand slaps, chokes, and some fierce kicks to a downed opponent. The idea of the ending was Multifacetico's high risk maneuver costing him the fall, but the execution was rough and it came off pretty bad. The awkward finish also injured Terry's ribs, although I admit I initially thought the injury was part of the match since it made some of the later nearfalls a bit more dramatic.
     
    The 2nd fall has Terry using the objects around him to continue his beating and I really dug his use of a beer bottle to bust Multifacetico open. Since Black Terry knows what these matches are all about, we get some bloody mask ripping, biting, kicks to the cut and some more great punches. Saying Multifacetico's comeback leaves a lot to be desired would be a huge understatement. It's really bad to the point that you can't blame the audience for shitting all over him and his comeback. In the 3rd fall, in another one of those brilliant Black Terry moments, Black Terry splits his own eyebrow open on Multifacetico head in a really violent headbutt. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the exchange of submissions and finishers in the first half of the 3rd fall. I think a large part of why I thought it worked was the excruciating pain that Terry revealed on his face, as it ended up adding a lot more drama than it would have had otherwise. But everything from the point of when the seconds got involved to the finish was very annoying and it felt like way too much bullshit for this match. With an ending unfolding the way it did here, it's really hard to come away thinking strongly about such a shitty technico.
     
    But man, what a great gutsy performance from Black Terry, it's really hard not to admire such a hard working maestro. I wish someone like Blue Center was in IWRG, as I could see him and Terry putting on a great show together.
     
    OHTANI'S JACKET:
     
    This was like one of those Peckinpah films from the 70s where the studios wouldn't give him any money anymore, so he rustled it up some other way and set about shooting a film. It didn't matter whether he had a script or not, so long as he was shooting. Black Terry didn't have shit to work with here, but with a bit of blood, and by injurying himself, he turned this into a match. It may have been a B-grade match, but it was gutsy as hell. Terry did a far better job carrying Multifacetico than I ever thought possible and the first three quarters was Black Terry playing Warren Oates in Bring Me the Head of Multifacetico.
     
    Noodles has a point about Multifacetico, but he bled, and sold about as well as he could. He can't throw a punch, but I dug how every time he hit Terry, Terry would hit him back twice as hard. I'm kind of leaning towards Terry's injury being real. He was like a deadman walking through the final two falls. For fans like us, Terry was the obvious technico here, and while I thought this was pretty much great for the first three quarters, I completely agree with Noodles about the finish. The best thing you can say about this match was that it was violent. Terry beat on his man, there was a mini concession stand brawl, Multifacetico bled from a bottleling, Terry worked the cut, dragged his own carcass around and split open his eyebrow... what the match needed was a Peckinpah style death scene. The submission battle in the third fall was epic and one of the best things I've seen in lucha this decade, but I'd rather the tape had cut out than the shit that followed. In the end, we got the dramatic head shaving and the post-match promo where it sounded like Terry had punctured a lung, but a killer finish and this would've been one of my favourite matches of the decade regardless of how good Multifacetico was. As I keep alluding to, it was Terry directing an apuestas match. Workers don't get enough credit for authorship in wrestling, and I've gotta say I dug Black Terry's take on an apuestas match in 2008, bar the ending, which probably wouldn't have been necessary if Multifacetico hadn't been such a failure as a technico.
     
    But what do you expect from a guy who came out to an A*Teens cover of Mama Mia? A little girl was dancing since it appealed to her fucking demographic. I did dig Santa Esmeralda's version of Gloria at the end. If Multifacetico had been the slightest bit cool that would've been worthy closing music. If Dandy had won to that music, he would've told everyone to keep on having that party.
     
    Anyway, Black Terry fans will want to see this. Ignore the finish and pretend he met his end like an anti-hero.
  14. ohtani's jacket

    IWRG!

    By ohtani's jacket,

    Dr. Cerebro & Suicida vs. Oficial Fierro & Trauma I, IWRG Castillo Del Terror, 11/01/09
     
    This year has seen a lot of sources for IWRG come and go as guys get their accounts suspended or burn themselves out on uploading every single bit of TV. Not that I'm complaining. Without these people, I wouldn't have seen any IWRG this year. Thankfully, a new source for IWRG's Sunday show has emerged and I am hellbent on enjoying it while it lasts.
     
    Man, it was good to see Dr. Cerebro again. I dunno if it's because I haven't seen IWRG for months but everything about this match was a welcome return. It started out with some fairly typical IWRG matwork where you work your way into some kind of stretched out pose, hold it for a while and reverse, but they wrapped each other up in more knots than a month's worth of CMLL TV. Possibly two or three if you discount Puebla. There was some early dissension between Fierro and Trauma I and it looked like they wouldn't get along for the remainder of the match, but Trauma bowed to the wisdom of Oficial Fierro and they ended up having more chemistry than their opponents.
     
    The last time we saw Trauma I, he was making a strong case for the most improved wrestler of the year, and it looks like he's gotten even better. His brawling has come along nicely; lots of good looking knees and back elbows as opposed to chest slaps. El Suicida is Mike Segura, long time boy of Robert Bihari. He was on hand to trigger the comeback and did an awesome tope that sent Fierro all the way into next week's TV, which may or may not be uploaded. Fierro was really solid in this match and gave one of the better Oficial performances I can remember seeing this year. Modern lucha involves a lot of orchestrated spots, so once have the patterns down you just need to make sure you bump well and time everything okay and you'll be all right. That's pretty much what the did here and the match had impetus. It was a good enough match that I was looking forward to the third caida.
     
    As fate would have it, it was the team of Dr. Cerebro and Mike Segura who fell apart. The spot where it happened was actually mistimed, but it mattered not since it led to the two of them fighting on the outside and a twin tope spot from Fierro and Trauma. Cerebro attacked Segura after the match and I'm desperately hoping that their hair match airs next week.
     
    After the match, there was an entertaining vignette between Yack (Jack?) and Oficial 911. I don't speak a lick of Spanish so it may not have been funny but it seemed amusing. Can't tell you how happy I am to have IWRG back and with it the possibility of maaaybe following something on a weekly basis.
  15. ohtani's jacket
    Blue Panther vs. Atlantis, La Copa Victoria final, CMLL 12/5/97
     
    This was awesome. Twenty minutes of grappling with neither guy leaving their feet.
     
    Like a lot of lucha fans, I'm always on the look out for a pure mat contest. Most of the time, you get a caida or two of matwork before the match starts heading in a different direction, so to find a match like this is pretty rare. Searching through tape lists is a lot like digging for gold. You start digging in the wrong places and come up with nothing but dirt, but when you find a match like this it's like striking it rich.
     
    The match starts out with an amazing lock-up that's like two bulls locking horns. Atlantis works these awesome leverage spots from an armlock and Panther keeps trying to reverse into a dominant nelson position in what is basically a show of strength. Finally, they end up in the lock-up again and you know whoever comes out of the lock-up stronger will take the fall, because of the way the momentum is building. Mesmerising stuff and one of the best opening falls I can remember seeing. The whole time I kept thinking about how underrated Atlantis even among aficionados. Raging Noodles touched on this point recently. I think it's because I'm used to seeing him as a classic luchador in trios matches, so I forget what a good mat worker he was. Blue Panther brought out the best in Atlantis' wrestling ability, but at the same time, Atlantis is one of the best mat opponents that Panther's ever had. I haven't seen their 8/91 match in years, but this particular match is as good as any mat contest I've seen.
     
    Watching the slow motion replay of the first fall submission is a lot like watching the replay of a sumo bout, where you see exactly what it was they were doing coming out of the tachiai (the part where sumo wrestlers charge at each other and collide.) The fact that it's a Fujiwara armbar makes it all the sweeter.
     
    The second fall has the same arm lock and Atlantis does a series of armdrag takedowns into a crucifix armbar. All of this is ridiculously good. The armbar isn't as over as it is on all the New Japan we've been watching, but fuck it if Blue Panther doesn't reverse it about as well as you can in a lucha mat situation. Panther starts working some more traditional lucha holds, including an awesome "rolling surfboard variation" which Atlantis sells extremely well. The great thing about this match is the consistency in their approach. Atlantis keeps going back to the arm because it's working for him, whereas Panther is eager to get better position so he can start working from the top instead of from underneath. And just so I can avoid any of that 90s rubbish about limbwork and psychology, Panther is such a maestro that he doesn't target any limb in particular just the nearest opening. The reason for this is because he's a fucking great wrestler and not some mindless drone. I hadn't seen Panther work like this in a while, and just so you know, I'm immediately high on him again.
     
    I actually fibbed a little when I said they don't leave their feet. What they don't do is use the ropes. And it's a two fall match, which means the cut out the segunda caida and just give you one big long tercera caida with all the momentum shifts you could hope for. It's not until the end that they start working the rolls-ups, but it's not too bad. The finish is a bit staged, but you expect that when a guy loses in straight falls. The ego takes a battering whenever this happens in lucha and you've got to make it look a margin of error. Both guys were buffing hard down the stretch and you could tell they were working hard without that second break between falls. The upshot of that was some great selling towards the end.
     
    I managed to find the RSPW report for this match and the guy watching it said: "This was a good match, but too old fashioned. There were no dives, no brawling, just old fashioned wrestling." It's funny how values change. I sure as hell wouldn't mind if every match was like this. I dunno if I'd call it an old-school bout myself. If it had been wrestled in 1987, they would've worked the ropes more and had more flat back bumps. This was similar to the style that Santo, Casas and Felino were working at the time, pinching stuff from the juniors work they admired. Ray Mendoza was on hand to present the Copa Victoria, and considering he's my own personal god of lucha matwork it was all good to me.
     
    Just a great match from a great year for 1997. I really thought the old '97 mine shaft was barren but it struck gold again.
  16. ohtani's jacket
    Máscara Año 2000 vs. Mogur, mask vs. mask, 9/23/88
     
    This is the other match on the Viva Lucha Libre Part II commercial tape.
     
    You've got to love the old school CMLL entrances. There's a bunch of kids at ringside to begin with, hoping to get Máscara Año 2000's autograph or something. Moguar has the most nonchalant entrance possible and the kids run back to their seats as the two start hitting each other.
     
    I remember Jose being keen to see this because he reckoned Máscara Año 2000 was a good worker in the 80s. It was reasonably okay, but so badly mic'ed that it seemed like they weren't getting any heat. That can't have been the case, because after it was over the arena floor was packed. I don't think I've ever seen such a big crowd at ringside. Nevertheless, whatever heat they got sounded like background noise on tape and that hurt the match because it was one of those slow, blow for blow matches where they work at a moderate tempo.
     
    It was a fairly simple match, actually. There wasn't much in the way of brawling or mask ripping, and no real blood that I noticed. No bullshit, either. They tried pacing the third caida like the all-important fall that it is, but the slowish tempo didn't go well with the poor mic'ing. Basically, they didn't do a hell of a lot wrong, it just seemed like they were going through the necessary motions, partially because of the structure but largely because we couldn't hear anything other than cat calls. The most interesting thing about the match was the finish, which was a fairly nasty looking backdrop driver by lucha standards. Mogur sold it like death afterwards. He was still unconscious when the ref unmasked him and photographers stood over him taking snapshots as he lay on the canvas. He slowly came to, and the crowd were bobbing to-and-fro trying to get a look at him.
     
    The whole thing was kind of downbeat and I wasn't sure what to make of it.
  17. ohtani's jacket
    El Dandy vs. Pirata Morgan, hair vs. hair, 9/23/88
     
    So, here it is -- the elusive hair match. Only available in Japan and at a rental store to boot.
     
    This will have its grand unveiling on the DVDVR Lucha set, so you'll have to wait until then to see it. I know a lot of people are dying to see it, so I won't tell you too much about what happens, but if you've ever scanned through lucha records and let all those untaped matches kill you, then have I got a present for you. Where it rates in the grand scheme of things is up to the voters to decide, it was hard enough just getting it. I've actually seen it once before, and took my sweet eff time getting it out to people, but it's in the can and ready to go.
     
    Consider this a teaser:
     
    Dandy blades from the get-go. He's still in his gym sweater when Morgan attacks and blades on the outside. Morgan knees him in the back and he spends most of the fall with his arms crossed in front of his chest. There's blood in his eye and shit splattered all over his chest. It even trickles down to his waist. Morgan gets a decent handprint out of it and licks it off his palm. They have these awesome punch exchanges where Dandy follows up a Morgan right with some flush uppercuts, but Gran Davis keeps hooking Dandy's arm and Morgan plays them both for suckers. Morgan has a field day in the opening minutes. The trigger spot for Dandy's comeback is awesome. I don't wanna give it away, but it leads to a flying headbutt right into the sternum. Morgan sells a foul on a Dandy leg trip, and Dandy is incredulous when Davis threatens him with a DQ. Lots of heavy breathing and finger pointing. Morgan bleeds from his eye socket in the third caida and the left hand side of his face is a mess.
     
    The third caida is the most tape inspired fall I've seen from El Dandy. He does a whole bunch of Dynamite Kid spots, including the standing version of the diving headbutt where you sell the impact afterward. Somebody tell me whether that was a regular El Dandy spot. To be honest, the selling wasn't as good as in later Dandy matches and they only needed half the amount of spots, but there's always a temptation to crank up the tercera caida. I wouldn't have minded so much if the transitions hadn't been there for all the world to see. Guess I'm used to a slower rhythm from these guys and not as many spots. I'll give you an example: after a swandive tope from El Dandy, he met up with Pirata Morgan in the ring and transitioned into a German suplex. It kind of made me want to watch that '89 title match with Emilio again to see whether juniors inspired El Dandy holds up.
     
    On the other hand, you never really know whether it's you or the match. A different day and I might go along with the nearfall blitz. I rewound it a couple of times and found some nice little touches. With so much New Japan on the brain, I think I'll watch it another day. Can't spoil the post-match but it wrapped up pretty well. The crowd gave them money, so don't let my two and a quarter falls worth of enjoyment curb your enthusiasm.
  18. ohtani's jacket
    Perro Aguayo vs. Máscara Año 2000, hair vs. mask, AAA Triplemania, 4/30/93
     
    I guess I could be watching better stuff than this, but I'm into these bullshit mainevents lately. I don't know what's come over me, because I actually thought this was pretty good.
     
    To be fair, it wasn't a difficult match to work. The layout made it difficult for them to fail: a bit of brawling, a couple of quick falls, outside interference from the rudo corner, a smidge of controversy over the referee El Chocolate Amargo -- pretty much a baker's receipe for how to work a hair vs. mask match. Mascara Ano 2000 scrapped his way through the fight, Perro Aguayo made anguished Perro Aguayo faces and both guys were disfigured by the end. Perro juiced first, but Mascara Ano's was the sicker of the two.
     
    Jake Roberts was in attendance for this show, and you can just imagine Jake cutting a promo on this match: "It never ceases to amaze me what the human mind can come up with. I mean you think of the whole concept. Hair vs. mask? The man that wins this match is not gonna be the man that is the best wrestler, the best athlete. It's gonna be the man who will do anything. The man that will take that extra step. Do just a little bit more than anybody else. Maybe sacrifice a little bit more than anybody else. Now me, it never ceases to amaze people what I do after a show."
     
    Máscara contra Cabellera is an interesting wager. I mean you think of the whole concept. Lose your hair and it'll grow back eventually. Lose your mask and you have to live with that for the rest of your career. Makes you wonder why a rudo would ever put his mask up. I guess that crop of hair is just too tempting. The key to making it work is a drawn out struggle in the third.
     
    Since the match structure is almost always the same, the quality depends on how well you can sell. Great workers work a 50/50 caida where the match could go either way. Lesser workers are given a helping hand by the booking. I was surprised by how little bullshit there was in this match. Perro had a couple of highspots -- his tope and his La Silla (a Lou Thesz Press turned into a dive) -- but most of the fall was spent wriggling around on the mat. Timing is important here, especially if you don't have a lot of moves. For a match to hang in the balance, you need the workers to slowly come around. Perro Aguayo's childhood was straight out of Los Olvidados. The guy started working when he was five years old. He's not lying down and everyone knows it. You've got to kick out of his best stuff and sell for all you're worth otherwise there's no suspense. The longer this went, the more it seemed like Mascara Ano 2000 would find some avenue of escape. Perro Aguayo fans had to be squirming in their seats over some of these nearfalls. Most crowds have a fair idea of when the end is nigh, but the workers took it a beat beyond.
     
    Actually, they took it several beats beyond, and I would've preferred a tighter finish, but they had a face saving finish in mind. Mascara Ano was low blowed into the history books and erupted into a fit of rage. Mind you, post match antics are half the fun. Mascara Ano 2000 and his brother ripped the shirt off El Chocolate Amargo's back and pulled him around the ring like a hog tying contest. Mascara stalled for as long as he could as the suits started making their way to ringside. It was one of those great unmaskings where the rudo tells everyone to go fuck themselves. In New Zealand vernacular -- you're a pack of arseholes and you're not bloody gawking at my face. And off he went.
     
    Entertaining end for the Mask of the Year.
  19. ohtani's jacket
    EL DANDY VS. ANTIFAZ DEL NORTE, hair vs. mask, Monterrey, 9/17/00
     
    Antifaz del Norte goes to the dance with El Dandy.
     
    RAGING NOODLES:
     
    I think my positive reaction to this match has a lot to do with when it occurred. If this match had taken place in 1989-1992, I know it wouldn't have stood out amongst the great stuff that was taken place at that time. No doubt it's a flawed match but in 2000 and after years of El Dandy having 4 minute matches on WCW Worldwide, this feels like a blast to watch.
     
    El Dandy does a good job of working Antifaz over and getting some nice juice. To get the match heated, Dandy brings out some quality biting, good punches, headbutts, and mask ripping, and it was very effective. Nothing complex, but one doesn't look for complex things in a simple match like this. It was kinda surprising to see Antifaz attempt to make a comeback at the end of the 1st fall but I dug Dandy quickly cutting him off and the execution of la casita was pretty neat.
     
    In his youth, El Dandy had these really athletic and beautiful looking bumps that were breathtaking to watch. He had incredible form when he took a back body drop and I've never seen anyone else do it as good as him. It was very graceful and aesthetically pleasing to watch him bump around when he was at his athletic peak. But at this point in his career, the much heavier El Dandy has bumps that were closer to a huge sack of potatoes being thrown in the air and it landing with a hard nasty thud. Drastically different but the bumps were great and had a lot of impact. In a way, they had this "realistic" feel to them and felt more painful than his earlier bumps.
     
    In one of the previous entries, the issue of bullshit and overbooking was discussed. Zumbido was involved a lot in this match, and at times it felt like it was just too much. Zumbido handing weapons to El Dandy was a bit of a distraction, but I did like the payoff of Zumbido eating a huge shot with the fridge top. Also, one of the major spots, which was Antifaz headscissoring Zumbido off the apron, was really embarrassing and horribly executed. Although it should be pointed out that it was Antifaz's fault and not Zumbido's. Antifaz had some other awkward moments throughout the match, and one of the cringe worthy moments involved El Dandy attempting to lock the figure four leglock a second time. Everyone could see this counter coming a mile away, except Antifaz. El Dandy was just there bending over forever until he finally just rolled himself up for an inside cradle attempt. Pretty lame job from Antifaz considering this was supposed to be a big match for him.
     
    In a career that has matches against Satanico, Casas, Navarro, Azteca, and Charles, this is a minor work in the career of El Dandy. But on El Dandy's side of things, this was a very good performance out of him and it was pretty enjoyable to see Dandy lead a lesser worker through a big stip match at this point in his career.
     
    OHTANI'S JACKET:
     
    Dandy looked fantastic here. Honestly, when I turned this on, I thought I was watching something from earlier in his career. This just makes the Dandy booking situation all the more mysterous.
     
    This being Monterrey, it didn't take long for Antifaz to bleed like a stuck pig. The brawling was on par with the better stuff from Guadalajara, but if you squint hard enough it looks like it's taking place in 1989. Monterrey always gives you that sort of atmosphere because of how poorly lit Arena Coliseo is. The cameras can barely follow the workers into the crowd, and when they do it's all about guys beating the shit out of each other in the dark. Add to that the fucked up camera angles, line crosses and mismatching shots, and you have all the production values you could ever hope for. You wouldn't want them to shoot this clearly, even if they could. It's Monterrey, pretty much a refuge for broken down luchadores and blood stained canvas. I hope to God they never pump any money into it.
     
    The match was all about the deciding fall, as most apuestas matches are. It seemed to me that Dandy was working more along the lines of his middleweight days than the light heavyweight he ballooned into, presumably because of his opponent. Antifaz was a youngish guy whose mother was the promoter. He had a good body and the moves that really move 'em, but at least he tried working old-school. The headscissors spot was fucking awful, and Zumbido looked like a fool for standing there waiting for it to happen, but Antifaz made up for it with the kind of dive that gets people gigs in CMLL. Could've done without the unnecessary pose, though.
     
    Dandy was kicking it old school, pacing this sucker like the matches he worked on his way up. There wasn't as much care or attention as in the past, i.e. not as many minor details for us to gawk at, but I have no idea why CMLL didn't snap Dandy up to lead their guys through a good match for a change. As RN pointed out, Dandy was a guy who could feed Antifaz del Nortes stuff they couldn't figure out for themselves. CMLL has fuck all guys like this and that's been one of their big problems from a work standpoint. Obviously, there were other factors at work that put the kiabosh on seeing weekly El Dandy, I just think it's a damn shame. He was good for another run here.
     
    All told, it was a decent match. The finish kind of sucked, but we're not talking about a match with a lot of big ideas.
  20. ohtani's jacket
    EL DANDY y ULTIMO VAMPIRO vs. NEGRO NAVARRO y PANTERA (IWRG 4/4/02)
     
    Dandy vs. Navarro! This is the match where they use their fists a lot.
     
    RAGING NOODLES:
     
    This past weekend I saw this match for the first time in years and was blown away by the Dandy/Navarro exchanges. Most of the pimping of Negro Navarro centers around his incredible matwork, and it's obvious why. But Navarro's someone that should get much more praise for being a complete worker with tremendous brawling skills and this is one of his great performances. In this bout, Navarro appears to be in the elite league of great brawlers like Bill Dundee and Dick Murdoch with his masterful use of fists and his selling of Dandy's strikes. Late in the final fall, Navarro nails Dandy with a KO looking punch that sends Dandy crumbling to the mat. One announcer starts to compare Navarro to Marco Antonio Barrera and later on the other announcer talks about how Navarro's fists have sent many people to the hospital. Navarro's striking ability is so strong that you actually believe the announcers! I guess the best way to describe Navarro's performance is "Dick Murdochian".
     
    I always thought Pantera was one of the more underrated workers in lucha libre, and a really smooth technico worker. He's a rudo here, and spends a lot of time leading Ultimo Vampiro through the match. Pantera is solid enough in this role and does some good work with Ultimo Vampiro, who is without question the worst worker of the match. Pantera has some nice holds along the way, bumps good for Vampiro's stuff, and hits a great looking springboard senton. But it was awkward and ugly to see Vampiro lock a loose submission hold over Navarro and it was something one would have a hard time buying. Also, it's a major shame that the final showdown of the match was Pantera/Vampiro instead of it being an epic final conclusion to the great Navarro and Dandy story.
     
    Like Dick Murdoch's giant bag of selling tricks, Navarro demonstrates a variety of ways to put over Dandy's strikes. In the match, he'll get hit by a punch and sell it as if his legs are buckling below him, he'll slightly lose his balance and try to regain his composure. At another moment, Dandy nails him and he slowly collapses against the ropes, and then he takes that Jerry Estrada bump on his head to the outside. One other example is he'll draw closer to Dandy to shorten the distance between Dandy and himself after a blow has rocked him. Dandy gets the better of Navarro with counter punches, and he has some cool moments dodging Navarro's stuff. Dandy absorbs a lot of punishment and it makes him look like such a tough badass. He takes Navarro's best right hooks, straight rights, uppercuts and bodyshots against the ropes. Dandy has that selling that is hard to pull off, the selling where he's trying to act like it's not hurting him but it's really killing him inside. It's awesome and it feels like a brutal war.
     
    A few months after this, El Dandy started a AAA feud with El Hijo Del Perro Aguayo that turned out to be very disappointing and underwhelming. In 2004, he had a title match with LA Park that had both guys working hard but it was nothing more than OK. Of course, there is the possibility that some hidden post-2002 El Dandy gem gets discovered any day now, but this appears to be the final great El Dandy match. On the other hand, Navarro is still one of the best workers in the world and has had some great performances in 2009 against Solar I, Black Terry, Mike Quackenbush, and Dr. Cerebro.
     
    OHTANI'S JACKET:
     
    This really was the tale of two wrestlers -- one of whom went on to become the wrestler of the decade and the other who faded into obscurity.
     
    Flashback to 1992 and it seems unreal. Dandy was the middleweight champion of the world and still a draw at the main event/semi final level. Navarro was working a dying territory and hadn't been a draw since the Misioneros broke up in '86. I'm not sure what the story with Dandy is. Most people assume that he's burnt all his bridges and doesn't have a good enough relationship with the promoters to earn a veteran spot. I guess those were heady days back with the suits and shoes, and the nice watches. Big things had been predicted for Navarro early in his career, but according to Dr. Lucha, by 1991 he was reduced to working small independent shows, living off his reputation. I would've loved for the Misioneros to have jumped ship in '92 and reformed with Texano in the trios scene back then, but from all accounts, Navarro wasn't charismatic enough or a big enough draw to interest anyone. That should've been the end of Negro Navarro, and would've been if not for two things: the digital revolution and Navarro's rise from El Misionero to El Maestro.
     
    The growth of digital technology has given us access to shows we would've never seen before, and while it's a pretty small circle of fans who'd consider Negro Navarro the best wrestler of the decade, fuck it, veterans working the indies has been the best thing about this decade. I'd love to know what motivates Negro Navarro and other UWA cast offs, but whatever it is, it's the difference between El Dandy and Negro Navarro in 2009.
     
    To be fair, Negro Navarro is something of a late bloomer. Los Misioneros de la Muerte weren't the most charismatic group in Mexico. They were hailed by the lucha magazines for their new breed of skill, speed and athleticism, and Navarro was very much the "middle worker." I've seen scraps of Misioneros footage, and Navarro, while an excellent worker, never stood out from his peers. The interesting thing about this match is that it's somewhere between a Misioneros style performance and the focus on Navarro as a singles worker this decade.
     
    Navarro's selling and bumping was straight out of his Misioneros days. We didn't really see his famed submission knowledge until the final fall, and even then it wasn't the single takedown stuff that's made him so tough in recent years. This was brawling style Negro Navarro, similar to how he's worked with Black Terry of late. I think I've said in the past that Navarro was never much of a brawler, but this match and a handheld I saw from '84 knock that idea on its ass. Navarro ducking and weaving like a pro-boxer was awesome, and the comparisons with Dick Murdoch and Lawler and Dundee are apt. Dandy was still the man here and the charisma from both workers was off the charts. Back in the Misioneros days, the Dandy/Navarro exchanges would've formed a small part of the overall match. Here, the match was stripped back, and Navarro and Dandy were able to shine in all their bareknuckled glory. It was great watching Navarro emerge as a singles worker of note, even if there was a reversal of stature going on every time Navarro landed rights and lefts. Like I said, I have no idea what happened to Dandy this decade, but I hope he's still driving around in an El D Cadillac getting paid in full.
     
    The match was a bit too scrappy for me to call it great, but if there were more matches like this available, fans like me wouldn't have to bother with the travesties that other companies promote.
  21. ohtani's jacket
    PERRO AGUAYO, JR. VS. UNIVERSO 2000, hair vs. hair, 3/17/06
     
    Just to get our readers up to speed:
     
    After Universo Dos Mil laid Perro Aguayo, Sr. out and took his hair, Perro Aguayo, Jr. took on the age old quest of avenging his father's defeat. Perro, Sr. wound up returning on the 2004 Homenaje a Dos Leyendas show, where the Aguayos took the hair of Cien Caras and Máscara Año 2000 in a pretty good match actually. Sadly, Lover Ice's account was pulled before we could give it a proper review, but it all lead to one defining moment -- a showdown between Perro Aguayo, Jr. and the man who ended his father's career.
     
    RAGING NOODLES:
     
    Another match from one of the hottest feuds of the decade, and another example to point to if you want to show people a strong Universo 2000 performance. The Dinamitas were always some of the more charismatic performers in lucha libre, and El Hijo Del Perro Aguayo had more star quality and more charisma than anyone else in 2006. Also, this might be the last great lucha de apuestas match that still feels part of the same style of hate-filled brawls that EMLL loved to built to. While I thought the 2009 Villano V-Panther match was excellent, the work in that bout felt stylistically closer to a modern WWE main event brawl than it did with an old fashioned lucha libre fight. As the years have gone by in pro wrestling, almost everybody has started working for the TV cameras, and this has played a part in making a lot of CMLL matches forgettable and generic in recent years. But Universo 2000 and El Hijo Del Perro Aguayo were elite arena performers that worked for the people there in attendance and this had the feel of a big time Mid-South Coliseum main event. Just like the Perro Aguayo match from 2001, Universo was the worker of the match and he deserves a lot of credit for how impressive this turned out to be.
     
    Right at the opening, Universo goes straight at Aguayo with a flurry of tight looking strikes and throws Aguayo around by his hair. Universo also takes him over with a nice hip toss throw and hits a hard senton. Universo is not giving him any time to recover and is closing in the distance to go for the kill. Universo puts him away with a fireman's carry slam and a medio cangrejo to win the first fall in a direct fashion. Aguayo never had an opening and the attack was violently straight forward. Between the falls, he is still after Aguayo and gives a slam on the ramp and poses at the crowd to show them who's in control.
     
    The second fall starts with Univeso 2000 entering the ring with a sloppy but painful looking dropkick on Perrito. Universo just continues the onslaught with a nasty looking camel clutch as he tries to rip Aguayo's mouth wide open. Aguayo refuses to submit, so Universo hits him with another hard senton. Perro's selling the punishment with a lost stare and Dr. Alfonso Morales cries out that he's in another Galaxy! Universo hits a HUGE dropkick on Perro, and then makes the timeless mistake of going to the top rope. Of course, the high risk move fails and Perro makes a quick comeback and hits la lanza for the win. I guess one of the criticisms here is that Aguayo's comeback didn't have the impact it probably should have had and his strikes weren't as good as what Universo was dishing out.
     
    At this point, it's a little surprising that the seconds in the match, Cien Caras and Perro Aguayo Sr., have not had any huge role on what has taken place in the ring, but that's going to change soon. In the third fall, neither guy has a significant advantage over the other, as it progressed into a more back and forth struggle between the two. It's a pleasant surprised to see how organic it felt rather than the problematic "my turn, your turn" stuff that infects too much of pro wrestling these days. In the opening moments, Universo takes his awesome corner bump that just sends him flying to the outside in a great looking visual. It's a trademark bump that Universo takes, and the impressive thing about it is how reckless and out of control it feels. When Universo steps back in, he quickly surprises Aguayo with a great flying elbow blow and hooks on the Gory Special. Aguayo reverses the Gory Special quickly into the Octagon special for a nice counter. After that, Perro avoids Universo's charge and Universo takes another great bump, this time into the ringpost and it sends him flying to the floor again. Aguayo immediately sees the opening and follows it up with la silla from the apron. As the match unfolds, we see more nearfalls, counters and the usual moves we see in these type of matches. As expected, Universo starts to cheat as the match starts drawing to a close by using the assistance of ropes in a couple of nearfalls. Aguayo also takes a huge over the top rope bump, and Universo quickly goes flying out of the ring with an impressive tope that sends Aguayo into the 2nd row. Finally, the seconds get involved and we get martinete teases, a low blow false finish, and a furious Perro Aguayo Sr. punting Universo between the legs for Perrito to finally score the victory. Confetti rains down from the sky while Perro Sr. and Cien Caras have a brawl.
     
    Epic encounter, amazing atmosphere and one of the great CMLL brawls of this decade. Universo 2000's facial expressions and him clutching at his crotch as they cut his hair is one of those great postmatch moments.
     
    OHTANI'S JACKET:
     
    I thought Perro's performance here was crap.
     
    Think about it like this -- here's a guy who humiliated your father and ended his career. Your father is a guy who got over by ripping El Santo's mask and bloodying him like few had before, which, according to legend, saw Santo retaliate by going back to his rudo beginnings. He made enemies his entire career, til finally he was shot down in the street like an aging gunslinger. It's an archetypal revenge story: Los Capos are Frank and his men in Once Upon a Time in the West, and you're Charles Bronson.
     
    Steve Sims describes a hair vs. hair match as follows:
     

     
    Gone are the days of "blood, sweat, tears and more blood," but if any feud fit the bill this decade it was Aguayos vs. Los Capos. This ought to have been one of the fights of the decade, with Perro, Jr. showing the same intensity as his father. After all, he'd waited five years for this apuestas.
     
    So how did Perro play it?
     
    Like a chump.
     
    It's all well and good to have the big, dopey offence befitting an arena performer, but it doesn't mean shit if you can't act or sell. The writing was on the wall when he come to the ring as though he were the Rock or some shit, and later on he took off his shirt and posed to the crowd. Jesus Christ, you're supposed to be avenging your father not auditioning for a WWE development spot.
     
    This match was a complete waste of Universo 2000, arguably the best main event performer CMLL have had this decade, who I thought gave an excellent performance. The match would've been better off as a one fall contest, but no amount of bullshit could've saved this since Perro Aguayo, Jr. was working like a rising CMLL superstar and not the son of the man whose honour he was defending. Perro was so misguided, so focused on his own heat, that he barely gave any shine to Universo Dos Mil or the meaning behind the bout. Perro's comeback here was the worst I've seen in a big match, and Universo really should've sandbagged him, which he could've done in a single fall contest by cutting off his comeback attempts. Watch how Perro pops up on offence like Kurt Angle. This is the type of shit that gets ignored when wrestling debate boils down to favouritism.
     
    The highlight of the match was Universo's tope, which was an awesome spot but came off like a title match spot. That's the problem with CMLL hair matches these days -- there's nothing to differentiate them from title matches or any kind of singles match for that matter.
     
    The finish was bullshit too. Technicos should never win a hair match like that, even if it is "una sopa de su propio chocolate," and Perro, Sr. was a famous rudo in his glory days. Full credit to Universo 2000 for the way he sold the aftermath. That put the young Aguayo to shame.
     
    Let me set something straight: I don't think Perro Aguayo, Jr. is a hopeless worker. It was just a hopeless performance in a hopelessly modern CMLL hair match, and a massively disappointing way to cap off one of the better feuds this decade. Universo was shifted from the main event scene after this -- a shitty exit for such a proven performer. Perro, Sr. and Cien Caras retired amid a storm of controversy. Universo should've got a better send off. Raging Noodles thought this was great, and he's a much nicer guy than me, so you've got two opinions. If I learnt anything from doing these reviews with him, it's that Los Capos were gun.*
     
    * Aussie slang -- to be gun at something is to be very good or the best at something.
  22. ohtani's jacket
    Mil Mascaras vs. Perro Aguayo, Olympic Auditorium, 1982
     
    I believe this is from Hollywood Wrestling, the LA promotion which Kurt Brown immortalises each week on the Slammin' Stan Podcast.
     
    It was taped off the Spanish International Network, and featured guest commentary from British wrestlers Chris Adams and Ringo Rigby, who sounded like the Beatles. I shouldn't really say that, since I'm from the Commonwealth and have been familiar with British accents my entire life, but still I got a kick out of Chris and Ringo.
     
    The match was your typical sort of one fall contest where they grapple for ten minutes before the rudo gets frustrated and calls it quits. Neither guy was about to job here, but I've never understood why bookers and promoters think an "early showers" match will satisfy the paying customer. There was nothing wrong with the work mind you, they just cut it off at the knees.
     
    Mil gets a bad rap as a worker. He may have been difficult to work with, but I like a guy who doesn't give away too much. His brother often fed guys shit they had no business getting over him. With Mil, there was a shootish edge to his matwork. Perro plugged away in this match, and Mil gave him a sniff here and there. I suppose you could argue that Mil had no intention of making Perro look good, but let's face it, aside from some good looking takedowns, Perro was no Wonder Mike on the mat. Perro's big moment in the match was his punch combos in the corner.
     
    I also saw a short clip of a Lucha Leaves Town, Mexican Death Match from the same territory. I'm not sure what classified it as a Mexican death match, but it was a tag match between the Americas champs, Carlos Mata and Kiss, and the Misioneros de la Muerte (Signo and Texano.) The finish wasn't shown, but I'm assuming the Misioneros were run out of town. According to Negro Navarro, Texano was the best mat worker of the Misioneros, and sure enough his grappling was solid.
     
    Last, and definitely least, was a nothing match between Canek and Mario Valenzuela. I can never quite figure Canek out. Mechanically, he did everything a luchador should, but for a guy of his fame and notoriety, he could be as soulless as Blue Demon Jr at times. Valenzuela provided what little there was in the way of interesting spots, but he was a loose sort of a worker and had trouble with his execution. Canek did the worst job of hiding a foreign object in his tights that you will ever see in professional wrestling.
  23. ohtani's jacket
    PERRO AGUAYO VS. UNIVERSO 2000, hair vs. mask, CMLL El Jucio Final, 3/30/01
     
    So here's the deal: 2009 is almost over, and I'm no closer to figuring out what the best matches of the decade were, so from now until whenever we drop this project, Raging Noodles and I will search for the likely candidates. Judging by the wrestling this decade, we'll probably watch anything and everything.
     
    First up is a mascara vs. cabellera match from Perro Aguayo's lengthy retirement tour.
     
    RAGING NOODLES:
     
    Wow, this was far better than I was expecting it to be. Crowd heat is incredible for this, and Perro looks like he belongs more in a wheel chair than he does in the ring. But even though Perro looks like he could barely walk, I'm surprised to see him taking bumps off of Universo's offense in the early portion of the match. Universo tries that spot where you fall back and monkey flip a guy over you, but Perro just stomps him in the face. Smart man.
     
    Perro then clotheslines Universo to the outside, and follows up with a tope! I would be dishonest if I did not admit that it might be the worst tope in the history of Arena Mexico, but it was gusty as hell and made Aguayo look like an insane old crippled man that doesn't give a fuck. So, that was awesome and I loved it. Mascara Año 2000 is Universo's second, and he starts to beat the shit out of Aguayo. While this is going on, Aguayo's second Villano III, is furious and starts to argue with the referee Tigre Hispano. Back in the ring, Universo misses a charge in the corner and takes a great back body drop bump and then takes another one of those to the outside. Man, Perro seems to be in a lot of pain yet he still busts out la silla spot. Some more interference from Mascara Año 2000, and Hispano attempts to restrain a furious Villano III. Whoever laid out this match deserves all the credit in the world for how great of a spectacle it's turning out to be. Back in the ring, Universo attempts to submit Aguayo and then gives Aguayo a back body drop which must have felt like hell for Aguayo. Aguayo is sent out to the floor, and Universo accidentally wipes out his brother with a tope. Perro starts counting Universo out, but Tigre Hispano continues to be a dick and refuses to count Universo out. This is really entertaining. A rudo referee breaking up the rhythm of a Santo/Panther match in Monterrey is really stupid. But this stuff here is really smart and it's working.
     
    Perro is now in control and starts to unleash some of his usual offense to try to put Universo away. Perro does a nice samoan drop and hits a big senton off the ropes for a cover. Perro continues to be in charge until Mascara Año 2000 trips Aguayo and Universo hits a low blow on Aguayo. Villano III is awesome as the second, and his reactions to all this interference is incredible. Universo goes to the top rope for a big move, and Aguayo moves out the way and quickly goes for a pinfall. Tigre Hispano refuses to count up to three, and Dr. Alfonso Morales screams that it might be arthritis that's preventing him from making the three count. That was hilarious. Aguayo knees him in the face and hits an elbow drop, and Hispano refuses to count to three again. Perro Aguayo can't believe this and is flabbergasted at all this bullshit. Perro's acting and body language has always been one of his strongest points. Probably the best thing he does in this match is the masterful job of being able to convey all his emotions to the Arena Mexico crowd. Universo fails to clothesline Perro, but hits Tigre Hispano and the ringside commissioner orders Tigre Hispano to the back. Aguayo is awesome at stirring up the audience to chant for Hispano to leave the ring. In the brief moments where there is no referee, Mascara Año 2000 just pops inside the ring and both brothers double team Aguayo. Roberto "El Guero" Rangel comes out! Awesome, Rangel blocks a martinete attempt from Universo and orders Mascara Año 2000 to the back. Behind Rangel's back, Aguayo hits a low blow for a nearfall. After a couple of more false finishes from Aguayo, and with the crowd chanting "Si Se Puede!", Aguayo finally sets him up for La Lanza. He hits it, does a huge fun celebration and is in a state of ecstasy about it. But when he makes the cover, a "fan" with a Pierroth mask, throws a drink in his face to blind him. As soon as Universo recovers, he picks up the blinded Aguayo and hits the piledriver for the win.
     
    Dr. Alfonso Morales is screaming about this injustice and is furious at everything that has taken place. He starts interrogating the commissioner, Roberto Rangel, Mascara Año 2000, and screams at Universo 2000 that he couldn't beat Aguayo like a man. Morales also goes on to accuse him of getting one of his family members to throw the drink at Aguayo's face. Morales is awesome as a pissed off, truth seeking journalist trying to get to the bottom of this conspiracy against Perro Aguayo! The audience appears to be shocked and appalled at seeing an unconscious Perro getting his head shaved.
     
    As much as I love Perro Aguayo, he was so limited and broken down at this point, that it's a miracle to see how awesome this turned out to be. Universo 2000 deserves a lot of the credit for carrying Aguayo along the way, and I would love to know who was in charge of booking all the smoke and mirrors bullshit.
     
    OHTANI'S JACKET:
     
    Eight years ago, I wouldn't have watched this match. Nowadays, I figure that if anyone can make a CMLL match work it's a 55 year-old Perro Aguayo and a 37 year-old Universo 2000. It's not that I automatically distrust anyone under the age of 40, it's just that a match like this needs a whole lot of bullshit and a whole lot of heat, and these guys spent forever working that style.
     
    The Arena Mexico is set-up these days, the way it's lit, and even the way they shoot the matches, means you have to be a big match worker to pull this shit off. Many of the lucha classics would look out of place in present day Arena Mexico. They'd be better suited to smaller venues like Arena Coliseo. It's possible that past workers could get heat for their rudo tactics, but not at the same pace. There used to be an unbearable tension to the way a rudo would brutalise the technico. These days, they've filled in the "down time" with crooked refs and over involved seconds. You need to be larger than life to stick out from all the bullshit, and that was always one of Perro's strengths. A lot of workers are poor at playing to the crowd, even great workers who've been in the business for decades. Blue Panther, for example, is hopelessly bad, but a lot of other masked luchadores struggle with this as well. Perro was a guy who got over by channeling his intensity into a confrontational style. Win or lose, he set about making an impression, and was able to project that intensity onto the entire arena.
     
    55 year-old Perro was difficult to watch at times, but he worked this match like he would've ten years earlier. In fact, the booking was straight out of 1992, right down to the heel ref being ejected and Rangel taking his place. I guess it's no surprise that two guys who headlined "Pena style" main events in the early 90s were so successful in this match. In many ways, it was the culmination of not only Aguayo's feud with Los Hermanos Dinamita, but a bookend to the Pena driven boom of the the early 90s.
     
    Matches like these are full of bullshit, but when it comes to booking, there's good bullshit and bad bullshit. The bullshit here was phenomenal. The key to the match's success was that they booked it as a single fall contest. If they'd booked it as 2/3 falls, they would've had to chop up the fifteen minutes and overbook the finish to each fall, similar to wager matches of late. With a single fall, it meant they could work a simple match where Perro kept having his offence cut off and was a step closer to being screwed over. But the clincher was the finish. I have no idea what the feeling was at the time, but watching the match it seemed just as likely that Universo would lose his mask. I've got to admit that I had no idea whether the fan was a plant or not, but Perro taking the martinete on his back neck came as a complete shock. To have a legend like Perro Aguayo laid out like that is just about the ballsiest finish I've seen in lucha.
     
    Aguayo deserves credit for jobbing like that. It was only his second apuestas loss in fifteen years. Granted, he'd had the better of Los Hermanos Dinamita over the years, but it was an awesome way to put over Universo. I know there's been a reappraisal of Los Hermanos Dinamita in recent years, but up until now I haven't really bought it. I like their early 90s stuff, but I don't think they were good in the 80s. Watching the bullshit here, it kind of dawned on me that Universo was better than any other point in his career. The work here was pretty basic, but his bulked up frame made him a tougher looking proposition than his prime years. I think this match turned me into a Capos fan.
  24. ohtani's jacket
    Policeman vs. Centella de Oro, hair vs. hair, Arena Puebla 56th Anniversary show, 7/20/09
     
    I only saw the second and third falls of this on Tercera Caida, but from the looks of things it's one of the better matches this year.
     
    It was given about as much build-up as you can possibly get for an Arena Puebla match, starting with Policeman feigning a foul and Centella de Oro being unjustly disqualified. This was followed up by a couple of weeks of legit fouls, and really, there's two things that lead to a wager match. One is a bunch of mask ripping and the other is a kick to the balls.
     
    Of course this was a modern hair match, so there was no blood. Tercera Caida showed footage of their match from last year where Policeman bladed, but I guess you can't do that shit on TV anymore. So what you're left with is a little bit of brawling and selling and a greater focus on moves. This is a trend that began in the mid-90s, so I won't go on my usual rant about how shitty this decade has been, but the problem with a bloodless hair match is that it takes away all the hate and animosity and leaves you with a high stakes singles match. There's two ways to look at that, I suppose. You can either say it's not a great brawl, there's no blood, it's not a real hair match, or you can give up caring.
     
    Personally, I thought they did a pretty good job for two guys who are usually part of the opening card attractions. The match was heated and reasonably well paced. It was kinda obvious that they're fun trios workers and not exactly great at singles matches, but this was a legit attempt at an epic Puebla match. To make a CMLL match epic these days, you need a whole bunch of bullshit happening at ringside. The bullshit here was pretty good. Espíritu Maligno was Policeman's second and spent the entire match trying to cost Centella de Oro his hair, which is the booker's way of stirring up controversy without anyone getting the shit beaten out of them. The contrast between this and the eventual DVDVR Lucha set, where guys bladed at the drop of a hat in dimly hit, smoke filled arenas probably says something about the difference between the 80s and the 00s. One of the most annoying things about lucha these days is that the fans closest to the ring are self-aware that they're on TV. The fans who'd lose their shit over rudo interference are in the cheap seats, fenced off like they're at an ice hockey game.
     
    Anyway, the coolest thing about this match (and the coolest thing I've seen in lucha all year) is that after it was over, Centella de Oro put Policeman in a bunch of holds to make sure he had his hair cut. Amusingly enough, it was the best work they did all match.
  25. ohtani's jacket
    Arena Puebla 9/14/09
     
    Asturiano & Centella de Oro vs. Ares & El Bárbaro
    Mascara Dorada, Sagrado, Valiente vs. Dragon Rojo Jr., Misterioso II, Sangre Azteca
     
    Most of the sources for Puebla have disappeared lately. I know Alfredo gets a steady supply of Puebla, but unless someone releases a "Best of Arena Puebla" set, I think I'll stick to whatever I can nab. From the little I saw, the locals vs. minis feud was the best idea a CMLL booker has had in years, which naturally means it's over.
     
    The locals didn't have much spark this week. They did their bit and hit the showers. Centella de Oro looked as smooth as ever, but the highlight of the match was the finish. Ares was in the ring and Bárbaro was on the floor. Asturiano set his sights on Ares, but floated backwards on a no-look dive to the outside. Centella de Oro scored a big takedown on Ares for the submission finish, and the technicos got a nice pop from the balcony. Moves are just tools of the trade as far as I'm concerned, but I have to admit I watched that Asturiano spot a few times. It was beautifully done and well caught by Bárbaro.
     
    I haven't seen any Valiente lately, so I decided to watch his trios here. Earlier in the year, Valiente and Freelance were neck and neck for technico of the year. Freelance injured himself and fell off the radar, while Valiente threw all his charm out the window by looking positively scrawny. The good news is that Valiente looks bigger than before and is still pound-for-pound one of the best workers in Mexico.
     
    The match began with a tribute to veteran luchador, Roberto Paz, who died on September 12th. The rudos and technicos joined together to give him a send off, and everyone worked hard out of respect for the man.
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